May the Lord be pleased to bless
us together as we consider his word this morning. Let us turn
to the general epistle of Jude and read the last two verses.
Verses 24 and 25 in the general epistle of Jude. Now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling and to 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. desire should be, throughout
our lives, in accordance with these last verses, or last verse
really, that Jude recalls, recalls for us, which is that the Lord
God, the only wise God, our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion
and power, both now and ever. I feel this morning that really
the subject of my spirit is not counselled in any particular
verse, it occurs in a number of verses. And it's very simply
this, referring to God, He is able. He is able. There are many things in our
lives which are very, very difficult and very perplexing. Sometimes
we're not able to unravel the difficulties. and the situations
which come before us. And as I thought of that and
thought of the preaching of the Gospel, sometimes it's like this. We might stand at ground level
before a mountain, and really we cannot see very much. And if we commence climbing that
mountain, As we make a bit of progress, we get a bit of a view,
and we can see more things than when we started, we couldn't
see very much. And so we continue, and the higher we climb the mountain,
the bigger the view, the better the view. And when we get to
the top of the mountain, especially if it's a mountain by itself,
we can look all around and see the vista and get a very clear
view of so many, many things. Well, may that be exactly the
same with the preaching of the gospel, and may it be perhaps
when a sermon is preached, as we come together to hear a sermon
preached, and we may begin at ground level, and we may not
see very much at all, but as progress is made, and as understanding
is set forth, so we may see then more and more And then by the
end of the sermon, as it were, we stand on top of the mountain,
I'm going to look around and we can have a greater understanding
then of the truth of the Word of God. Now that, of course,
applies to every situation when sermons are preached. Indeed,
we want to come to the end of a sermon and have a picture in
our mind of that which has been spoken of. We don't want to come
to the end of a sermon and say, well, that was a muddle this
morning, or this evening, I don't understand anything that was
said. Surely it is a great onus upon a preacher, as he indeed
is blessed by the Spirit of God, to give a picture so that we
have an understanding of the Word of God. Well, this morning
then, if we think of this subject, he is able. And the reason why
I've read this particular verse is in Jude is we have the essence
of that in the 24th verse where we read, unto him that is able. You see, we know God is able
and we just need to be reminded of it. Sometimes we're fearful
that God is not able. We may think, well, God cannot
do this and He cannot do that. In fact, God can. He can do everything. And surely we need our faith
today to be strengthened to believe that we do stand and we do come
before a God who is able to do those impossible things. Those things that our own mind
says is impossible. We have many evidences in the
Word of God, don't we, of impossible situations. We can think perhaps
of the Israelites when they came to the Red Sea. Well, they'd
been brought out of Egypt. That was a wonderful thing in
itself. There they were in Egypt, been there for 400 odd years.
And well, the situation developed into a very critical thing for
them. It was worse and worse. The labour was harder and harder. How were they to escape from
all these Egyptians? Well, the Lord was able to deliver
them. And the Lord did deliver them
out of Egypt. And they came out with a high
hand. They brought everything with
them. And then, just very shortly after, they came to the Red Sea. How were they going to get across
now? And what was happening? Were the Egyptians chasing them
behind? And there they were, behind the
Egyptians, in front of the Red Sea. What were they to do? The
Lord was able to do that which is impossible. The Red Sea was divided. The
Jordan and Israel went over on dry land. And then the Egyptians,
pursuing them, were all drowned. The waters came and drowned them
and covered them. God is able to do great things. Now, there's
the two aspects of this. The Lord is able to do great
things for us naturally. He's also able to do great things
for us spiritually. And we should never limit the
power of God, because we stand before an almighty God, not a
little God, an almighty God. And how good it will be if our
faith is strengthened to believe that we do indeed stand before
an almighty God who is able to deliver us from what may appear
to be almost impossible situations. we mentioned recently about Daniel
in the lion's den and we know how God came and delivered him
from there. When King Darius says, is thy
God able? Yes, his God was able. His God
did come and his God did deliver him. And there was that earlier
account in the prophecy of Daniel where we remember or read of
those three men Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They were compatriots
of Daniel and they lived and they worked with Daniel but they
were singled out because they did not bow down to that idol
that the king had set up, Nebuchadnezzar set up. They wouldn't bow down
and therefore they were brought before the king and the king
spoke to them And he said, is it true? O Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden
image which I have set up? Well, we may think, of course,
that that is an isolated occasion. Well, it's not. In the world
in which we live today, there is much persecution to serve
false gods and not to serve the true God. And it's no different,
really, to this which Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego face. and
the king carried on and said, now if you be ready that at what
time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sattva,
sotra, and dasima, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship
the image which I have made well. You see, if they did that, everything
would be okay. But if you worship not, ye shall
be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is that God that shall
deliver you out of my hands?" Now, I want you to notice how
the king received an answer. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not
careful to answer thee in this matter. That means they weren't
cunning in their answer, they didn't try and counts their answer
in words which might be acceptable. They were downright honest. If it be so, our God, whom we
serve, is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace,
and he will deliver us out of thy hand, O King. Then he added
a little rider, but if not, Be it known unto thee, O keen, that
we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which
thou hast set up." And you may think, well, okay, that's alright,
that was in Daniel's day. We have very similar situations
today when we are tempted not to serve the true God. When the
devil brings before us many excuses, many reasons perhaps why we shouldn't
serve and worship the true God. Well, let us realise the power
of God, the power of God, that God can deliver us from temptations
and acknowledge what these three men said. This God is able to
deliver us. What a blessing it is if we have
a right understanding of these things. God is able to deliver
us today. He is able. There may be those
situations in our lives, perhaps in our school life, perhaps in
our college life, perhaps in our working life, perhaps in
our home life, situations which develop where we need God to
appear. We need God to deliver us deliver us. Now, we shouldn't forget that
in the case here of Chadwick Mission and Bendigo, they had
to go into the fire. They weren't delivered until
they went into the fire. But you see, God was with them
in the fire. And in actual fact, the fire
didn't affect them. It didn't affect them. It had
no power on them. That's an amazing thing, isn't
it? We come back to this point. The Lord God, He is able. Never
forget it. Although it may be a very testing
time, yet God is with them in a most amazing way. And as you
may remember, Nebuchadnezzar came and he said, I see four
men walking weren't there three? And I see four. And the fourth
is like unto the Son of God. Now, I believe today that there
are still those times when God comes alongside us and is with
us in these times of tremendous need. When we need God to appear,
we need God to deliver us, God doesn't dump us. He doesn't say,
well, you get on with it by yourself. God is with us. He is able. Never forget the truth of God's
Word. He is able. Sometimes we may think Well,
this thing is costly to me and I made a big mistake in these
things. Well, it's good if we can just remember the examples
that we have in the Word of God and one in particular example
that we read in the second book of the Chronicles where Ahaziah,
Ahaziah in his day, He sought help from the Israelites
to come and help him. And he actually went and paid
a hundred talents of silver to get this army of a hundred thousand
to come and to help him. What was he doing? He was looking
to man. He realised there was this battle
to fight. He looked at his own resources, he thought they're
not good enough. I better go and hire some more." So he went
and he hired another 100,000 men. And he paid 100 talents
of silver and a lot of money. And God came and he spoke to
him. The man of God came to him and
said, O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee. For the
Lord is not with Israel to whip with all the children of Ephraim.
But if thou wilt go, do it, be strong for the battle. God shall
make thee fall before the enemy, for God has power to help in
the cast down. And Amaziah said to the man of
God, but what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have
given to the army of Israel? He foolishly given this money
away. He foolishly sought help from
man. And he realised that he was likely
to lose all his money. He wasn't going to regain it.
What does this man of God say to Amaziah? The man of God answered,
the Lord is able to give thee much more than this. What an
answer that was. What a rebuke to Amaziah having
to look to the help for man. God is able. And he's still able
today, my friends. We may have to lose some money.
We may have to lose things. We may think, oh, it's going
to cost me this. But God's able to make it up. God's able to
do far more exceedingly abundantly than we can ask or even think.
We have such a God. How sad it is how we limit God
so often. We're so lacking in faith, aren't
we? To believe that we have such
a great and glorious God who is able to do these great things
for us. Oh, my friends, you know, God
is able to turn stones to our advantage. He's able to do that
which is impossible. It's a blessing, you know, when
you and I are given that faith to believe that we have a God
who is able to do great things for us in a natural way. You know, the Apostle Paul He
knew what it was in his life, didn't he? Have some little view
of what the Apostle Paul did in his life, and how many adversaries
he had, and how many difficulties he had, and how many trials he
had, and how many temptations he had. And yet in Paul's life,
he was able to express how God indeed had appeared for him,
and he was able to refer to the God of his God, the God of His
grace. He tells us this in Acts chapter
20, And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of
His grace. You know, this is Paul's charge.
What a wonderful statement it is. Now, brethren, I commend
you to God. We might say that was an obvious
statement. Well, sometimes we need to be reminded that to commend
each other to God. Whatever the difficulties, whatever
the problems, to God and to the Word of His grace, which is able,
you see, this is it, which is able, the God of grace, He is
able to build us up. Again, in a spiritual way, perhaps,
we have become cast down. It may appear that there are
mountains before us, difficulties. We can't seem to get round. There seems an impossible situation
to overcome. How are we going to overcome
it? Well, we aren't going to overcome
it ourselves, but God is able. God is able. Perhaps we've been
struggling ourselves to work out a solution. We have a God
who is able to build us up and to give us an inheritance among
all them which are sanctified. He is able. This is the God that
we need to consider, the God that we desire to proclaim. He is able. And so, just come
back then to this verse which we read in Jude. unto Him. Perhaps we need a now
in our life. Not yesterday. We've passed that. Now, unto Him. It's the Lord God. Now, unto
Him. Have we got a now in our life
today? Have we come here this morning with a now? that we need the Lords to appear.
He is able. He is able now. We've reached
the end of our tether perhaps. No, the Lord God is able now. What a blessing it is to make
all grace then to appear to us. And that grace, what a blessing
it is. It is of course, as we well know
I'm sure, the unmerited favour of God. The Apostle, when he
wrote to the Corinthians, he spelled it out so clearly, and
God is able to make all grace abound toward you. We live in
God, don't we, so often. I love the expressions of the
Apostle. He gives all the glory to his God, you know, and he
shows to us, he demonstrates to us the greatness of the God.
He's not a little God, and God is able to make all grace abound
towards you. He is able. You may think, well, I'm a very poor person, I'm a
very wicked person, I'm a very evil person. How can this ever
occur in my life, that this God will make all grace abound towards
me? And God is able to make all grace
abound toward you, that ye always, having all sufficiency in all
things, may abound to every good work. This is the God. This is
the God that we desire to exalt. This great, powerful God. The
hymn writer has a few lines on this, and it's a verse which
has gone round in my mind. 723, the first verse, which says,
Come ye sinners poor and wretched. It doesn't speak to anyone who
thinks themselves a great wonderful Christian. It speaks to the very
opposite. And it is a glorious gospel invitation. Come ye sinners poor and wretched,
weak and wounded, sick and sore. Demonstrates to us a very poor
outcast, a frail person perhaps, A hopeless case almost. Jesus
really stands to save you. Full of pity, joy and power. He is able. He is willing. Doubt no more. Doubt no more. Isn't that a problem
we have, isn't it? And how unbelieving we are. that
we doubt the greatness of our God. We really doubt that our
God is able to do great things. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves,
oughtn't we? Of our lack of faith. If we read
the Word of God, we read the wonderful appearings, the wonderful
deliverances that we have and we find, sadly, that we seem
to doubt the ability of God to deliver us, of God to bless us,
of God to comfort us, of God to encourage us. We seem as it
were to stand aloof. We seem to stand separate. We
seem to be by ourselves. We seem to be alone. We seem
to forget we have a God who is able Remember then, such words
as this, Jesus, ready, ready, ready, stands the Saviour, full
of pity, joined with power, he is able, he is willing doubt
no more. Well, this is the God that we
have, a great God, a powerful God, who is indeed able to make
us stand, in the evil day. It is an evil day which we live. How wonderful it is if we receive
that help and strength so that we might indeed stand. When the apostle wrote to the
church at Rome, he said, Who art thou that judgest another
man's servant? To his own master he standeth
or foreth. Yea, He shall be holden up for
God is able to make him stand. Sometimes there are those difficult
situations in our lives and we have to make a stand. A stand
against wrong things. A stand against evil. A stand
for the truth. A stand to be a follower of the
Saviour. Well, here we have the truth
of God. First of all, He should hold
us up. And secondly, He is able to make
us stand. This is the God that we have.
This is the God we desire to honour and glorify. This great
God. Now, the apostles had proved
it, hadn't they? You know, in the apostles' life, I'm sure
you remember, There are many occasions when he had to stand. He had to stand and God was with
him. God supported him. And he came before those tribunals. He came before kings. He came
before magistrates. He came before high priests.
And God was with him. God was able and God did enable
him to stand firm in those difficult situations. Well, my friends,
we worship the same God today, now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling. You see, there's that statement
the apostle makes with regards to standing. And we may be fearful
that we're going to fall. We may think, well, I haven't
got much strength myself. How am I going to stand when
people speak against me, when people criticize me? when people
speak against my religion, against my God. And when the devil speaks
against you, when the devil tempts you, we have this God who is
able to keep you from falling. It's right sometimes to fear
that you might fall because it indicates, it shows your weakness. Well, it's good to feel weak
in yourself, but my friends, it's good to feel strong in the
Lord. Like the Apostle says when he says, I can do all things
through Christ that strengthens me. There was the Apostle's strength,
it wasn't in himself. No, here's, Jude tells us here
in this account, he's able to keep you from falling. Oh then, to realise that we only
stand as God gives us strength to stand. Well, we have a God
who is a glorious God, a God who is a gracious God, who is
a powerful God. The Apostle wrote to the church
at Ephesus and so encouraged them with regards to the greatness
of the Lord. He tells the Ephesians, he came
to them and he said, well he desired Christ might dwell in
their hearts. Surely, my friends, this is the
great concern of the Church of God, the living Church of God. What it means is that all other
things, peripheral things, fleshly things, worldly things, are so
less important than this great concern that Christ may dwell
in your hearts by faith. that ye, being rooted and grounded
in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints." What a blessing,
what a desire this is. And my friends, may it be so.
May you and I have this great concern to comprehend, to understand
the great truth of the Saviour. In this day and age in which
we live, there are so many things distract us and to turn us aside
from the things of God. But here the Apostle demonstrates
and brings to our minds the importance of this great truth, that Christ
may dwell in your hearts, that we being rooted and grounded
in love, that means we have a good beginning. You know, the first
thing which happens with a seed, the root goes down, And you and
I, my friends, in the beginning of our Christian life, we need
to be rooted. We need to be grounded in the
truth, in the faith of Christ. We need to have that good foundation
rooted. Rooted and grounded in love. Love to God, because of his great
love to us. And may be able to comprehend
with all saints, This is the universal desire. This is the
universal knowledge. It isn't something which is precluded
to the Church of God or only some are blessed with. It is
universal. May be able to comprehend with
all the Church, with all the saints, what is the breadth and
length and depth and height. Well, that's in measurement terms
everything, isn't it? Height, breadth, width, everything.
It's great, isn't it? And to know the love of Christ,
which past has knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the
fullness of God. Now then, having made that statement,
and how important it is, the Apostle then comes to another
word, like we've got in Jude's epistle, now, now, unto him that
is able to do exceeding abundantly above
all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in
us. Unto him be glory in the church
by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Unto him that is able to do exceeding
abundantly." Oh, what a great God we have. Well, my friends,
this morning, may we have a little view, as it were, as we climb
up this mountain, as we are able to observe a greater panorama,
to have an understanding of the greatness of our God, to understand
how exceedingly abundantly He is able to do, above all that
we can ask or think, What a truth that is. What a statement, isn't
it? How contracted so often our minds are. How small they seem
to be. How we limit God in small things
as well as in large things. My friends, remember, He is able. He is willing. Doubt no more. Now to Him that is able to do
exceeding abundantly. These are great truths, aren't
they? What expression the Apostle brings before the Ephesians here.
He wants to show to them, give an understanding of the power
and the greatness of the Lord. To do exceeding abundantly above
all that we can ask or even think. What a great God we have. Let
us ponder these things this morning. Let us rejoice in them. Let's
bless God for these wonderful favours that we have with such
a God. And then the Apostle, when he
wrote to the Philippians, again we have a greater view, as the
Apostle comes and says, Brethren, be followers together of me and
mark them which walk, so as you have us for an example, For many
walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even
weeping, now the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is
destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in
their shame, who mine earthly things." He just gives that as
a demonstration of those who are not believers in this God
who is evil. But then he comes and says, but
for our conversation is In heaven, that means in heavenly things,
not on earthly things. From whence also we look for
the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body.
But it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according
to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things
unto himself. Well, we climb a little higher,
don't we? We see this God who is able, this God who is able
to change our vile body, our vile body, that it may be fashioned
like unto His glorious body. Yes, by God's grace, one day
we shall be like Him. Our body will be fashioned like
unto His glorious body. My friends, we can't do this.
He is able. Oh, what truths these things
are. How encouraging they are for us today. We may realise
we have a God who is able and this God who is willing. Then
as we come to the epistle of Paul to the Hebrews and the Apostle,
there directs us to the Saviour. for 2nd chapter 18 verse 4, in
that he himself hath suffered being tempted. The Lord was tempted
in all points like as we are, yet without sin. For in that
he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to succour
them that are tempted. That means He's able to take
us in hand and to instruct us and to encourage us in our path,
in our path of temptation. As we walk through this world,
we realise the Lord, He was tempted. We have there a friend who understands
us, who knows about us. He's able Therefore, to succour
us as we are also tempted." Oh, what a truth this is. What an
encouragement to the Church. He is able. He is able. And then, to think of what the
Apostle directs us to. Hebrews 7, 25, Wherefore, He is able also to save them
to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing ye ever liveth
to make intercession for us." Are we at the top of the mountain?
Do we see here the glory of the Saviour? This God was able to
save me to the uttermost. No one gets beyond that word.
No one gets outside of it. The uttermost, if you feel tonight,
or this morning rather, an uttermost sinner, be encouraged. Wherefore, he is able also to
save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for us, and he ever lives in
glory to intercede for such a high priest as the Apostle became
us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and made
higher than the heavens. This grace and glorious High
Priest, He is able, as we come to Him, He is able to hear our
prayers. He is able to answer those prayers. He is able, indeed, to come where
we are. He is able. Now, unto Him that
is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless
before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, we come to
the end of our life. So be the blessing if we are
amongst those when the Lord has appeared, the Lord has done great
things, to be presented faultless. Faultless because of what Christ
has done. He's shedding His blood to take
away our sins. That's why we're faultless. We're
not faultless in and of ourselves. We're faultless because of what
He has done, washed in the Redeemer's blood, and to present you. Think of that, the Saviour presenting
us before His Father in Heaven. So we have these words, now unto
Him that is able, to keep you from falling, and to 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." Well, may we
rejoice this morning in the fact that we have such a God who is
able to do for us far more exceeding abundantly, then we can ask or
even think. Amen.