One of the delightful places
in Tasmania we saw, I'm sure it was a place like that, was
along this creek it had some of the tallest trees in the world.
Huge, huge, ridiculously huge trees. And it was a forest of
tree ferns, so you actually walked through this forest of tree ferns,
and the huge tree ferns and there's this flowing brook and you walk
through all that up to a waterfall. When through the woods and forest
glades I heard myself singing, then I restrained myself because
I probably would have upset the trees, and hear the birds sing
sweetly in the trees. When I look down from lofty mountain
ground here and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze, I
sang it to myself many a time as we walked through that forest.
Simon, would you like to pray for us? Dearly beloved, thank you that
you are a body lost to people from eternity. Thank you that
you've ordered all things in this world after Father to bring
us to yourself and to reveal your greatness amongst us. We
thank you for church, Father. We thank you that you've drawn
us from the camps. of religion, and you've shown us a real and
lasting love and salvation. We thank you, Heavenly Father,
that that lies in your dear Son and in His work on the cross.
We thank you, Father, that your Spirit moves in our hearts and
works in our lives, that we may come to know more of the wonder
of your grace. Thank you for the safe return
of our Pastor, Heavenly Father. Give Him the liberty this morning
that He might speak boldly and that He might direct our attention
away from our lives and the difficulties of our own flesh to look back
again at our Saviour. Cause us to gaze on Him, Heavenly
Father, and fill our hearts with love. Energise us and cause us,
Heavenly Father, to rejoice, to praise Him. Please lift them
up in the name of Jesus Christ our heavenly Father. Cause us
as we consider Him and His work in our lives to encourage one
another in this hour and to remind each other that the battle is
the Lord's. I'm going to turn in your scriptures
to Remarkable, delightful, challenging
and wonderfully encouraging book of Jude. I was going to get down to the
verses I wanted to look at, I was just going to go through the
letter briefly and point out some of the salient points, and
I trust that you might go away from it encouraged to go and
seek the Lord's guidance as you read it again and again. I think
the more I've studied it over this last several weeks, the
more I've come to fall in love with this little letter and the
themes that are in it. And so much like Christian life,
it begins with a declaration of the fact that the children
of God, in verse 1, are loved, sanctified, by God the Father,
preserved in Christ Jesus and called. And as we know from the
scriptures, all that was what happened before the foundation
of the world. And He calls upon them to He
calls upon the Lord in prayer for there to be mercy unto you
and peace and love multiplied. And then he calls in that great
description that we see in the scriptures, Beloved, Beloved. So that's how the letter begins.
And the letter finishes with those verses that we sing each
week, 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. So there is in the beginning
before the foundation of the world, there are a people beloved
of God and set apart for Him, set apart as His own treasured
possession. And in the end, that great God,
that great triune God, but more particularly, our Lord Jesus
Christ will present this bride, the gift of His Father, He'll
present them faultless before the presence of His glory with
exceeding joy. But in the wisdom of our God,
our great, our only, the only wise God, our Saviour, in the
wisdom of God, the rest of this letter is one that encourages
God's people to stand together in the midst of contention. I'll read verse three. Beloved, when I gave all diligence
to write unto you of the common salvation. There is but one common
salvation. It's common to all of God's people. It's salvation by free and sovereign
grace. It seems as if he was wanting
to write about this common salvation, wanting to write about the glories
of the grace of God, and to exhort you He gave all diligence to
exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was
once delivered unto the saints. It was needful for him to write. It was needful for him to write
that you should earnestly contend. You should earnestly... The word
is strong in the Greek. It's agonised, but it's the word
we get our word agonised for from. That we should just give
all diligence, all agonising. You should earnestly contend
for the faith. So this is what a bond servant
does, isn't it? I love how Jude describes himself
in verse 1, the servant of Jesus Christ. This is what a servant
of Jesus Christ does. I love thinking about that fact
that we are His bond servants. And the wonderful thing about
the grace of God in the lives of His people is that those who
are most free delight most in being His servants. Not law-keeping. mercenaries, paid in some way,
but willing bond servants. And verse 4 gives a reason for
him changing and agonizing and encouraging others to agonize
because, verse 4, for certain men crept in unawares who were
before of old, ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning
the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God
and our Lord Jesus Christ." Now obviously it's easy for people
to think, The Jude is here talking about people who are openly and
outwardly wicked and immoral and encouraging people into open
and outward immorality. And nothing could be further
from the truth. They crept in, verse 4, they
crept in unawares. How do you get into those churches? And Jude was writing probably
within 30 years of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every
church that existed in the world at that time was touched somehow
by the apostles. How do you creep in to a church
where John is the pastor, Paul has been the pastor, Timothy
the pastor, Peter, James, these servants of the Lord, how do
you creep in unawares? You must creep in looking like
them. looking like a genuine believer
in so many ways. They're ungodly men. They turn
the grace of our God into lasciviousness. Really what that must mean is
that they're saying that if you preach the simple glories of
the triune God in saving, grace and mercy, and don't bring people
under a bondage of works and law, they will be led into lasciviousness. Preaching the Gospel is not sufficient. for God to use that Gospel, to
use the looking for people away from themselves and their own
works and looking to the Lord Jesus, that is not sufficient. You must do something. We've
heard it before, the sentence always begins, but. But you must
do this and you must do that. It was happening in Paul's day,
in Paul in Romans 3, speaks of them They slander him. They slander the message that
they bring, verse 8 of Romans chapter 3. And as some affirm
that we say, they slander the Apostle Paul and they affirm
what we say, let us do evil that good may come. Let us do evil
that good may come. Their damnation is just. You see, that's denying, isn't
it? Preaching works and preaching law and preaching human activity
and human ability is denying the only Lord God and our Lord
Jesus Christ. Please note the ours, isn't it?
It's the grace of our God and it's our Lord Jesus Christ. So Jude the servant writes to
put them in remembrance. And he goes through in these
next verses a litany of the tragedy of the fall. In every created
realm the creature has fallen. The angels, what a remarkable
experience the angels must have had in the presence of God and
other angels. Lucifer, Satan, was an angel. A third of the angels fell. God created Adam perfect and
upright and put him in a garden. What that garden must have been
like, to see it through unstained eyes of sin, to actually be in
the presence of God, to be in that relationship with ease,
to be in that relationship with creation. And Adam fell. Again and again, in every situation,
the creature falls. Paul, Jude, is one of them to
be reminded, isn't he? He starts in verse 5 by reminding
them of what happened in the people, how the Lord, having
saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed
them that believed not. You remember, you can read the
numbers, over 600,000 people crossed that Red Sea. How many
went into the Promised Land? Out of 600,000 men, how many
went into the Promised Land? Just two. Just two. He destroyed them that believed
not. And the angels, verse 6, which
kept not their first estate but left their own habitation, He
hath reserved in everlasting change under darkness until the
judgment of the great day. The angels which fell, they left
their own habitation, they kept not their first estate. Verse
7, even as Solomon, Gomorrah and the cities about them in
like manner, It wasn't just those two cities, it was others in
like manner. They're named in Hosea, two of
them are named in Hosea 11. It was a huge, huge event. Giving themselves over to fornication
and going after strange flesh, that's speaking of homosexuality.
are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal
fire." I read in one of the commentaries that they said that on the Dead
Sea, which was the site of those cities it seems, There was, floating
on that sea, within the living memory of people, Ashfield, Bernard
Ashfield, floated on the sea, on the Dead Sea, as a sign of
what extraordinary event it was. I think Jude is adding adding
again and again the depth of the fall and the nature of the
frailty of man so that we would not be presumptuous and that
we would be caused to cling to the Lord Jesus in faith and be
remarkably and incessantly thankful for saving mercies. Verse 8,
likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion and speak evil
of dignities. They despise the Lord's dominion,
they speak evil of the dignity of His people. his servants. Yet Michael the archangel, when
contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses,
doth not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord
rebuke thee." That God's servants leave the Lord to do the rebuking. But these filthy dreamers, these
certain men, Jude wanted these people to know them by name and
to know their activities. These speak evil of those things
which they know not. So they're ignorant. They're
ignorant of God. They're ignorant of spiritual
realities. They speak evil of those things
which they know not, but what they know naturally. That's how their knowledge is
based, isn't it? It's based on natural wisdom
and natural thinking. I saw what supposedly an evangelistic
thing on the computer a couple of days ago and had one of the
world's famous Christian apologists. And there he was, he was asked
a question, you know, why? Why is Jesus Christ the one and
the right way? And it was an extraordinary answer
for a philosopher. It went into all the reasoning
and how He had all of these reasons, then he had the reasons for the
reasons, and then when you put all this together, out pops saving
faith. So it was just natural thinking,
wasn't it? You can logically and naturally and historically
come to an acknowledgement that a man called Jesus Christ really
lived, and it's really, really important to deal really seriously
with him. But if you just know naturally,
you must be born from above. Flesh gives birth to flesh. That's all this man was doing.
He was encouraging these philosophy students in university to enter
into a little bit of different philosophy. Know naturally. As proof of this, in those things
they corrupt themselves. Well unto them, because they
have gone in the way of Cain, ran greedily after the error
of Balaam for a ward, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah, perished
in the rebellion of Korah. These are spots. The word can
mean dangerous reefs. It might seem as if they're not
there on the surface. They are dangerous reefs. They
are spots in your feasts of charity. It seemed as if the people in
those days, when there was no social security and people were
starved as they didn't have care of others in difficult times.
They used to gather, the Christians used to gather and have a meal
where everyone shared their food and the poor people of those
days would come and they called it a love feast, a feast of charity. So they feast with you. You see
there are certain men crept in unawares. They are there feasting
with you, feeding themselves. without fear, no fear of God
before their eyes. They haven't met Him, they don't
know Him, they have no reverence for Him. Clouds they are without
water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth without
fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. You can read the
parables of the Lord Jesus to describe those that are plucked
up. and set aside for the burning, raging waves of the sea, foaming
out their own shameful deeds, wandering stars, to whom is reserved
the blackness of darkness forever. And Enoch, also the seventh remembered,
prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with
ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and
to convince all that are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds
which they have ungodly committed, and of all of their harsh speeches,
hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. These are murmurers and complainers
walking after their own lusts, their mouths speaking great swelling
words, great arrogant words, having men's persons in admiration
because of advantage, flattering people for their own advantage,
admiring men. But Beloved, remember ye the
words which were spoken before the apostles of our Lord Jesus
Christ, how that they told you that there should They should
be mockers in the last time who walk after their own ungodly
lusts. These be they who separate themselves,
separate themselves from the saints, separate themselves from
this immoral world in some sense. saying that they're not going
to be defiled by it. Of course, it's good to be separated, but
if you think that the problem is out there and not in your
own heart, all the separation in the world will do you no good
whatsoever. Sensual. The word is animal. They are just fleshly, not having
the spirit. They're natural. See, Christianity,
true saving faith, is a spiritual knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's a spiritual relationship with Him that He has begun and
He initiates. He continues on and He is the
one who must get all the glory for it. Before we go on to these encouraging
verses towards the end, we've got to keep remembering that
God is absolutely sovereign. In verse 4 you read that these
certain men they crept in otherwise, but they were before of old ordained. Before of all, they were written
in the eternal counsels of God, it was written of them, written
to this condemnation. They were ordained to this condemnation. Verse 13, they are reserved,
aren't they? They are reserved. The angels
are kept, they are locked up by God. They were prophesied of in verse
14. The apostles spoke the same thing
in verse 17. They told you, verse 18, that
it should be mockers in the last time. You see, these men have
crept in. We know they have crept in to
churches all over this world and polluted them. We know that
the religion of this world is earthly karma. It appeals to
the will and the wisdom and the worth of men again and again
and again. You'll see again too that God
holds people righteously and justly accountable. These people that Jesus was writing
about were alive in His tongue and had this letter in their
hands. You see, they feast with you
without feeding. They despise dominion. They despise the absolute sovereignty
and dominion of God and they despise His service. And we know We know that this
is the case because in verse 15, the end of verse 15, ungodly
sinners speak against him. Whenever we hear the Lord Jesus
spoken against in this world, the scriptures tell us over and
over again. Don't look to this depraved,
corrupt world for the cause of that. Look to the churches. Every time you hear him blasphemed,
we pay taxes to have him blasphemed in this nation of ours. Every
time you hear a blasphemy, every time you hear someone mocking
the Lord Jesus, the fault always is with someone standing behind
a pulpit. I cannot think of something which
causes him to be so dishonoured as modern religion. that tells men that they have
a free will, when God says that they're absolutely dead, which
denies the absolute sovereignty of God. Jude is reminding these
people, isn't he, is reminding us, God is sovereign. In all
of these activities, God is sovereign over all things. This modern
gospel that tells people that salvation is in the hands of
men, I've picked up pamphlets in churches as I went through
Tasmania again and again. They'll even take something like
the life of Newton and his song Amazing Grace and then turn it
at the very back of it into something where all of this is available
for you if you do something. And here's the sinner's prayer.
You can pray the sinner's prayer. Salvation is open and free to
all because God loves you and Jesus died for you. Nothing,
nothing builds up the pride of men and causes our Lord to be
spoken against. It's this modern so-called gospel. These men had heard that. They are murmurers and complainers
and they walk after their own lusts, and their mouths speak
great swelling words. I don't know about you, but I
get very tired of people, religious people. displaying their piety,
displaying their holiness and using great swelling words. And they use them in such a way
that you are almost challenged by their holiness not to say
anything against them, as if they have this barrier of all
of their outward religion as a barrier to them to them being humbled, so that
without fear, verse 12, all of this, all of this, is ordained by our God. All of this is purposed by our
God. All of this is perfectly designed
from eternity for the good of God's people, ultimately designed
for His glory. But you, beloved, building yourselves
up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, All of these
things are about the gathering of God's people together and
the gathering of God's people around the Gospel and the gathering
of God's people around His Word. Keep yourselves in the love of
God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal
life. Have compassion, making a difference. Have mercy on those that doubt. And others save with fear, pulling
them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the
flesh. Believers are kept by God. and they keep
themselves in the love of God, what are they doing? They're
looking to the mercy, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Brothers and sisters, have you
seen His mercy? If you look back on your life,
You look back on the moments of your life. Can you see, can
you see a history of His work of mercy? What remarkable mercy He shows
His people in preserving them and protecting them and taking
them out of this world. What a remarkable mercy for our
God to come and reveal Himself to His own. This same Jude asks
that remarkable question of the Lord Jesus. What a challenge
it must have been for him to wear that name Judas, which might
be why he is called Jude in this letter and was known as Jude.
What a remarkable challenge it must have been for him, as he
wrote this letter, thinking of those around him who in history
had fallen and were falling again. Judas asked one question of the
Lord that's recorded for us, it's in John Chapter 14, and
he said, Judas said unto him, this is the Lord Jesus at the
Last Supper, Judas said unto him, and John just to make it
very clear that this is not Judas Iscariot, Judas said unto him,
not Ascaria, chapter 14, verse 22, Lord, how is it that thou
wilt manifest thyself unto us and not unto the world? How is
it you're going to manifest yourself? Why are you going to manifest
yourself to us? Reveal yourself to us and not
to the world. I love the Lord Jesus' answer. Jesus answered and said unto
him, if a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father
will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with
him. My Father will love Him, and
we will come unto Him and make our abode with Him. He that loveth
me not keepeth not my sayings, and the word which you hear is
not mine, but the Father's which sent me. These things have I
spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter,
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name,
He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." What a remarkable
promise to these people in that time of enormous trial and what
lay before them. Don't you have to worry about
it. Don't have to think about it. It will be brought to your
remembrance, the things which I have spoken to you. Peace. Peace I leave with you. My peace
I give unto you, not as the world give I unto you. Let not your
heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard
now, I said unto you, I go away and I come again unto you. If
you love me, you would rejoice, because I said I go unto the
Father, for my Father is greater than I. And now have I told you,
before it come to pass, that when It is come to pass, you
might believe. Hereafter I will not talk much
with you, for the Prince of this world cometh and has nothing
in me. But that the world may know that
I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, even
so do I. Arise, let us go hence. how often those words of the
Lord must have rung in Jude's ear. Now, we have but little time,
but I trust given the nature of what has gone before, you'll
see how precious these verses are. We only have time to look
at them briefly. I love how it begins in verse
24, now unto him. See, it's a continual now, isn't
it? It was now unto Him 2,000 years
ago. It was now unto Him in the days
of Abel as they left the garden. It was now unto Him in the days
of Noah. It was now unto Him in the days
of Moses. It's now unto Him. Right now,
isn't it? Right now there is no condemnation. Now unto Him. unto Him. Jude has described
Him, hasn't he? He has described Him as our Lord
Jesus Christ. He describes Him in the next
verse as our only wise God, our Saviour. He describes Him as
the One who preserves Him. He describes Him as the One who
is the bringer of mercy and peace. He describes Him as the One who
is beloved. He describes Him in His glory. It's lovely to hear the Lord
Jesus lift it up. See the solution in dark times,
the solution in troubled times, the solution in these times that
we live in today is to speak, as what does God say, speak to
the hearts of my people. You speak to my people, speak
to my people about who I am. Speak to my people about how
I save and keep and preserve. Don't have to worry about chasing
down all the rabbit burrows that are presented to us. We just
speak to God's people about Him. He is the One that is able. He is the One that is able to
keep. He is the One that is able to
guard. See the angels couldn't keep
themselves, Adam couldn't keep himself. People in this world
can't keep themselves. They must be kept by Him. and they must be kept and guarded
by Him who is God and absolutely sovereign. That's why Jude wants
these people to remember that this apostasy, this heresy, this
evil that perverts the glory of God in the eyes of so many
people in this world is God's ordainment. He who cannot do
what He will and perform all His pleasure cannot be God. The very definition of Him being
God is that He reigns absolutely supreme. God has spoken once,
and twice I have heard it, that power belongeth to God. He has given Him power over all
flesh. that he should give eternal life
to as many as the Father has given him." And John in that
prayer he says, while I was with them in the world I kept them
in thy name. He kept them in the name of the
Father. That those thou has given me
I have kept and none of them is lost but the son of perdition. Why? That the scripture might
be fulfilled, is able to keep He has described falling, hasn't
he? Falling of the angels in heaven,
falling of men, the falling of these certain men that creep
in unawares, these worksmongers, these legalists, these perverters
of the Gospel. They think that in exalting what
they are doing with their flesh, they are honouring God. And he
calls them filthy, filthy dreamers. It's all spiritual language.
I pray the Lord would cause you to go and look carefully at it
again and you'll see those things with spiritual eyes and some
clarity. He's able to keep you from falling. He's able to keep you. He's able
to keep a particular group. That particular group, the sanctified,
the preserved and the called ones of verse 1. It's the Father's
will. to keep them, isn't it? It's
the Father's will that He'll lose none of them that were given
to Him. It's His delight to keep them. He loves them. It's His responsibility
to keep them. The glory of the Triune God is
dependent upon Him keeping them. The glory of God revealed in
the Gospel is the revelation of His character, His holiness,
His sovereignty, His justice, His faithfulness. And all of
that depends upon Him keeping His own. His covenant stands
sure, doesn't it? The Lord knoweth them that are
his. He keeps them from falling. We
live in this place, live in this flesh, in this world, where there
are so many means of falling out there. He keeps them from
falling. and falling by temptations. He
doesn't keep us from being tempted, but He keeps His own from falling
under that temptation. What terrible falls we have by
the sins. As we get older we can hide so
many of our external sins, but those who are taught of God no
more of their inward corruption than they ever did in the past. Such is my journey. I trust it
is the journey of many here. But sin shall not have dominion
over you. Why? Not because you go back
and do law-keeping, fleshly deeds, but because you're under grace. God's children fall into sin,
but they'll never fall into sin such that they will perish. There
is, of course, as Jude refers to here, there is the falling
of damnable heresies, isn't there? There is a falling, a falling
into believing the lie. Believing the lie about man,
believing the lie about God and His character and how He saves
His people. Multitudes, multitudes in our
day are going to hell with the confidence a confidence in their
own works and their own righteousness. That's just what the scriptures
say, brothers and sisters. You read Matthew Chapter 7 and
you'll find that these people will turn up with a confidence
on the Day of Judgement and they will bring their works before
God. And God's not denying, our Lord
Jesus is not denying their works. He makes that shocking, shocking
statement. I never knew you. Depart from me." What a shocking,
shocking sound. As the gates of hell close on
them and they hear those words of the Lord Jesus, depart from
me. These damnable heresies, they
are deceivers, aren't they? They creep in unawares. Verse 4, they feast with you. Verse 12, They are murmurers and complainers,
verse 16. They are ordained to that. They are able to sway multitudes
to their cause. It is the religion of this world
in all of its evil forms. We have no strength in ourselves. This is where Jude is going,
isn't he? To the same place that we saw
the psalmist go in Psalm 116. We just go to Him. He is able
to present you. He has the power to present you
faultless. We are sinners in Adam. Sinners
who are guilty and filthy in their nature. Sinners who are
prone to black-siding. Sinners who are like Paul, who
calls himself the chief of sinners and says that whatever he wishes
to do good, sin is there with him. Sinners. He's going to present sinners.
Formless. Formless. Isn't that remarkable? Perfectly clean and holy, inside
and out, washed in His blood, justified in His righteousness. I love what the psalmist says
in Psalm 70, he says, I'll be satisfied. When I awake, I'll
be satisfied. We'll wake in the likeness of
Him. It's a constant theme, isn't
it, throughout the scriptures, the perfect, preserving presentation
of the Lord Jesus, His bride, the jewels of God, presented
back to the Father, perfectly spotless and faultless. It says almost the same words,
in 1 Thessalonians 5. And the very God of peace sanctify
you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body
be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not just faultless in the eyes
of men, not just faultless in anyone's eyes, but brought
us in the presence of His glory, in the very presence of the glory
of God, able to be there in God's presence, holy. It's His work to do. It's His
honour and glory. He represents us there now. We're
seated with Him there now. And one day these realities will
be manifest to all creation. I love how Isaiah describes it,
doesn't he? The sun shall be no more thy
light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto
thee, but the Lord shall be unto you an everlasting light. and Thy God and Thy glory." He
goes on in a couple of verses saying, these jewels of His are
the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may
be glorified with exceeding joy. We must remember in the midst
of all of this, our God is a God of infinite joy. with exceeding joy. See, He delights
in the way He saves His people. It's for their joy, it's the
joy of the angels to see one sinner repent. It's the Father's
joy. It's the joy of the Son, for
the joy set before Him. He endured the cross. It's the
joy of the Holy Spirit. It's the joy of God. It's the
exceeding joy of God to save His people. He doesn't do it
in some mercenary way, does He? He doesn't do it begrudgingly.
He does it with joy and with delight. In Your presence, said
Psalm 16, in Your presence His fullness of joy at Your right
hand are pleasures forevermore. I love how he describes the Lord
Jesus. What a great description. To the only wise God, our Saviour. The only wise God, the alone
wise one. He who has infinite wisdom, he
can't add anything to his wisdom, he doesn't learn anything, our
God. He's infinitely wisdom-wise. O Lord, how manifold are Thy
works! In wisdom You have made them all. the depths of the wisdom
and the knowledge of God. You see, even the darkness of
all of those things, all those falls and all of that, what we
see that causes us so much grief, we've got to keep remembering
that God ordained it. God controls it. God does it
for His good, for the good of His people and for His glory. To the only wise God, our Saviour,
be glory. May He be glorified. What do
you say to these people in the midst of these trials where they
have these creeping snakes coming into their churches? He's saying
the solution for you people is to glory in your Saviour. To Him be glory, the glory of
His deity, the glory of His humanity, the glory of His redemption,
the glory of Him on the cross, the glory of Him on the throne
of heaven right now. Be majesty. Delight in His majesty. Majesty is his right, isn't it? He is our saviour, absolutely
sovereign. He has dominion, no matter what
the circumstances are. He has dominion. He reigns eternally. He who on
this earth had no place to lay his head is the sovereign ruler
of this universe. You see, be power. To him be
power. He has power over all flesh.
He has power over this universe. The sun is streaming through
those windows because the Lord Jesus makes it stream. You see,
He is the wise God. No matter what the circumstances
that have come into your life, no matter what the trials are
that you have been through, you will have seen His mercy that
you are going through due to saying you look again to His
mercy. And as you walk through this
valley, you look again and again to Him. He is only wise. He has power over all flesh,
both now and forever. Amen. It's a great word, amen,
isn't it? It means, so it should be. So it will be. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable
gift. You see, He rules. He rules sovereignly. He is able. We sing that song,
don't we? He is able. He is able to keep
that which I've committed unto Him. Commit everything unto him brothers
and sisters. Hold nothing back. Keep everything
for him. Amen. So it should be. Let's pray.