Okay. The Scripture says in 1
Corinthians, let's turn over to 1 Corinthians 10. I want us
to start reading more. I want you to actually go to
the Scriptures and read it. I can't do all of them because
it would take too much time, but some of them we need to look
at. In 1 Corinthians 10, in verse
11, Now all these things happen unto
them in samples or examples or types for us. If you read that
whole chapter, you'll get it. They are written for our admonition,
upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore, let him
that thinketh he standeth, think he lest he fall. You know, faith,
real faith is not presumption, is it? Real God-given faith is
not presumption. And presumption is not faith.
It's not faith. And so I know that every child
of God knows that potential's there. And so what Jude is doing
here, he's gonna give us comfort and assurance that the Lord is
able to keep us from falling. Is God able to keep me from falling?"
That's a good question. And we have the answer here in
verse 24. Now, unto Him. He starts out
here with a note of praise. Unto Him. All praise belongs
to Him who's able to keep us from falling. God in the Trinity
of His person deserves all honor all the honor that we can bestow
upon Him. We cannot bestow enough honor
upon Him. We will not be guilty. We will
never be guilty of worshiping God too much. Never. All honor, all praise, and all
trust, He deserves. He deserves it. Let us never lose sight of the
one who's keeping us. God. God Almighty. Think about who
he is. Think about who he is as he has
revealed himself in the scriptures. The creator of the universe.
The sustainer of all things. He is the one keeping us. Could we be more secure? Absolutely
not. Let's never lose sight of the
one keeping us. Now here's a vital truth. He
is able to keep us from falling. Falling. No saint, now listen,
No saint, no child of God ever gets above the point where they
won't fall. Never. I'm talking about falling into
an error of spirit, getting a bad spirit, a bad attitude. You know,
I owned a business for 25 years. And over those years, every now
and then, there'd be one person that would get a bad attitude.
And I tell you, it was rare that they ever got out of it. Once
they got into a really bad attitude, it was hard getting that turned
around. He's able to keep us from air of spirit. David said, creating me a clean
heart and a right spirit. I want a right spirit toward
God. and toward you. And then He's able to keep us
from falling into error of doctrine. If it were not for God keeping
us, we would fall into error of doctrine. Guarantee it. And then He's able to keep us
from falling into error of judgment. Lord, give us good judgment. good understanding, wisdom. He's able to do that. Our Lord
is able to keep us from falling in error of spirit, error of
doctrine, and error of judgment. He's able to do that. Jesus Christ,
our God and Savior, is able to keep us from falling into these
things and from falling away as we pass through this valley
of the shadow of death. That's what we're passing through.
As we go through this life, as David said in Psalm 23, it's
a valley of the shadow of death. And He's able to keep us from
falling into these things I've just mentioned, and He's able
to keep us from falling away into apostasy. He's able to keep us. There is
no evidence in Scripture whatsoever that any child of God will ever
fall away into apostasy. But we do have plenty of evidence
that they can fall into sin and some miserable sin. David is
a good example. Solomon, my soul, when you read
the end of Solomon's life and all those wives he had and he
started building altars for them, they started sacrificing to their
God. This is the wisest man in the
world. So much for wisdom, huh? Godly
wisdom is real wisdom. But we can fall into sin. We can fall into gross sin. A
believer can do that. A pastor was talking here a couple
of days ago. We think because someone... and we have to be careful of
this. This is why the Lord says judge not that you be not judged.
We have to be careful that we don't judge someone that they're
not doing things the way we think they ought to do it. They're
not doing things that you say, well, if they was a believer,
they wouldn't do that. There ain't nothing a believer wouldn't
do if God takes his hand back. If God draws his hand back, there's
not one thing you and I will not do. Not one thing. And as I've gotten older, I've
realized that. I realize that, and I realize
that in preaching. I'm preaching to sinners. Sinners
saved by grace, but still sinners at best. At best. But our Lord's able to keep us.
He's able to keep us because He's God. Our Savior is God. The more I study Jesus Christ,
The more I admire and the more I stand in awe that that man,
that Galilean, is the Almighty God of creation. That's who He
is. And He came into this world.
God Almighty came into this world. Light came into this world. Life
came into this world. Took upon Himself flesh, took
my place, went and suffered in my place, rose again and has
gone back to glory. God is my Savior. That's what David said in the
psalm. God has become my salvation. God has. And He's able to keep
me because He's my surety. He's my surety. Jesus Christ
is responsible And I love this thought. This thought gives me
real comfort. He is responsible to bring me home. Think about that a while. When I think of that, I can just
put at the end of that, Sela, pause and think of this. Don't
let this just go by. God made him responsible. He
took upon himself the responsibility to bring home all the lost sheep
of God. Is he gonna do it? Will he do
it? Can he do it? Absolutely. Absolutely. And then he's able to keep us
from falling because he's our substitute. He's our sin offering.
He's everything I need to stand in God's presence. I have in
Christ God. I have in Christ a real man. I have in Christ a real righteousness
that God demands and God accepts. I have in Christ the blood of
atonement. I have in Christ the sacrifice. I have in Christ the
high priest that I'm supposed to have. No one ever came to
God apart from a sacrifice and a high priest. I have all that
in Jesus Christ. Yes, He's able. He's able. He's able to keep us from falling.
If God be for us, who can be against us? I tell you, the Word
of God is so powerful and so precious. If God Almighty, and
there's none above God, now if there was someone above Him or
equal to Him, then I could still be in trouble. But there's none
above Him. And if God be for us, who can
be against us? None but the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is God in the flesh, can keep us." No ceremony. We can go through all the ceremonies
that you want to go through. They can't keep you. No church
can keep you. No preacher can keep you. No
profession. Repentance can't keep you. The closet can't keep you. There's
no place where temptation cannot enter. and I fall." No place. No place. But brethren, it says
in Hebrews 7, 25, he's able. Well, turn over there. I got
it written down. I want you to read it. In Hebrews 7, look in verse 25. Wherefore, he is able also to
save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercessions for them." Right now, as I stand
here and teach this lesson, and you're sitting there trying to
listen to me, I know what it's like. You try to keep a rest
in your mind and bring it back and you listen for a while. While
this is going on, He's making intercession for us. And this
worship service is accepted of God. It's just as accepted of
God. If we're truly here to worship,
it's just as accepted of God as those standing before Him
right now, worshiping Him in glory. Why? Because He maketh intercession
for the transgressors. That's what it says over in Isaiah
53. And then He says He's able to
keep us from falling, but it gets better. This just keeps
getting better. He's able to present us. Even now as we live in this world,
we are presented before God Blameless. Right now, every believer stands
before God in Christ, holy. Holy. Spotless. Spotless. He's able to present
us and He's able to raise us from the grave to present us.
I was walking around this cemetery the other day looking at names
and people that have been there. Some people have been there a
long time, been a good while. And as I was walking around that
little cemetery, the thought struck me, everyone, every person
in this grave, as well as all others, they're really going
to come out of here. One day it's really going to
open up and the dead's going to rise. And all those who are in Christ,
all those who believe on Christ, He's going to be able to present
them. Go out there and dig them up now and look at it. Bones. I mean, that's what it is, bones. But one day, one day, He's going
to be able to present us with a new body that's without blemish,
that's without spot or wrinkle, our character without blemish,
without spot or wrinkle. And it says He's able to present
us faultless. Faultless. I've got so many faults. I'm glad you don't know. I'm
glad you don't know. You'd be disappointed. But one day He's going to present
us before His presence, faultless, without a blemish. without a
blemish. But in that day, in that day,
when I lay this body down, or if He comes back while we're
still living, we're going to go into His presence absolutely holy and righteous. Look over in Ephesians 5. In Ephesians 5, Paul is going to
give us the same thing. In Ephesians 5 verse 26, that he might sanctify and cleanse
it." He's talking about the church. In verse 25, "'Husbands, love
your wives, as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for
it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of
water by the word, that he might present it to himself.'" That's
because he's God. He's God. He's going to present
it to Himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing at all, but that it should be holy and without
blemish. And because of that, because of the way He's going
to present us and the way we will be in God's presence, He
says He'll present us faultless before the presence of His glory
with exceeding joy. Who can stand before such glory? Who can stand before such a glorious
person as God? God is said to be the light to
which no man can approach. I cannot stand here with any
words to even come close to describe God. God. The Scripture says, our God is
a consuming fire. He's still that way. He's still
that way. Outside of Christ, you don't
want to meet Him. You don't want to deal with God outside of Christ
because He's still a consuming fire. But in Christ, in Christ, We
can stand before His glory and we can stand there with exceeding
joy, not fear and trembling. When God came down on Mount Sinai,
when He made His presence known there, it was lightning and thunder.
And the people of Israel said to Moses, speak to God for us. Don't let us speak to Him or
Him speak to us. We can't handle this. But when He presents every
one of His children before the presence of His glorious Person,
they are not going to stand there fear and trembling. They're going
to stand there with joy that cannot be expressed. You can't
express the joy that's going to be when you stand before God. We can't comprehend that. And then he says here in verse
25, and Jude is saying that we can only attribute all this to
the only wise God our Savior. It's not God doing His part,
me doing my part. No, it's this whole scheme of
salvation, this whole scheme of bringing you to glory, spotless,
holy as God is. That whole scheme. is by the
wisdom of God. Now to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory. Glory is the manifested excellency
of God. That's His glory. It's who He
is. To Him be glory and majesty. Someone said it's incomparable
regal presence. as God's incomparable, regal
presence of the rule of the universe. This is the one we'll be standing
before. And this is the one He says to
Him be glory and majesty and dominion, rule over all, and power both now and ever. Amen. That's a good way to end
it, isn't it? So be it. So be it. God is able, our God is able
to keep us from falling. That's the best news I can give
you this morning.