Brethren, if you will, let's
open to the book of Jude. It's the last book just before
the Revelation. I was just saying about that old,
old story. And if I were to know the audience
I was preaching to, I had this text on my heart for a couple
weeks now. If it was an audience that had
never heard of Christ, had never heard these scriptures, had never
heard that old, old story, I may tell it with a little different
emphasis on certain parts. I may tell it at a different
speed. I may tell it with a different intensity than I would to you. But the story doesn't change.
The message doesn't change. As I prepared the message for
this text for yesterday, I also have in my heart one for you,
and I pray the Lord's given me one for you. We'll read there
in the book of Jude. My three divisions today will
be, no one and no thing can keep itself from falling. That's our ruin in the fall.
Christ is the only one who can keep us. are redeemed only by
His blood, are generated only by Him. And how can we be sure
that He's able? We aren't sure in ourselves.
He's able. How can I know? How can I know
that He's able? A reader in Jude, verse 24, 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 Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion
and power both now and ever. Amen. That is good news. But I ask you, who is this written
to? Who is this written to? Who wrote
this? And why was it written? Jude
is writing to believers. His name is Judas, not Iscariot. We'll see that in a moment. Jude
is writing to believers. He says there in verse 1, Jude
1. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ,
the brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the
Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. He's writing
to believers then. He's writing to believers now. You who are set apart, you who
are made holy by God, you are preserved and kept forever in
Christ. and you who he has called." That's
who he's writing to. It says in verse 2, mercy unto
you and peace and love be multiplied. Our brother Jude is about to
give us a very strong warning. Then he's going to show us in
whom mercy can be found. He's going to show us in whom
peace can be found, in whom love can be found. and in whom those
things are in great supply." They've been multiplied. In verse
3, he begins here with his warning. I've been cautioned before by
people that say I get mad if you preach against other religions. If I'm up here telling you what's
said is wrong, that's a bad thing. There are 25 verses in this book. Two of them are an introduction.
Are three of them an introduction? Two of them are a consolation
at the end, and the other is a stern warning. We need to be
warned. They're in verse 3. 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. That old story. There is something
common about the free grace that is found in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, when I say that, when Jude
says that, our common salvation, this isn't something that's generic. This isn't something at a thrift
store we can go buy, we can go purchase, we can pick up, by
anybody. It's not for everybody. But rather, it's the same salvation
from the first saint of God that's saved to the last saint of God
that's saved. It's common to all of us. Our
gospel does not change because God our Savior does not change.
He's saying here we should be earnest and diligent in contending
for the gospel, defending the gospel, looking out for the gospel,
and seeking that unchanging gospel of Christ. We should defend it
and we should seek to learn more of it. But there's going to be
many, there will be many that will not. Men and women have
fallen, and there'll be many that fall and continue to fall. We'll see that here. We have
seen it here. We'll see it in the future. People will come
for a season. They'll sit underneath the gospel, be excited about
it. It'll seem like they have a fire in them, and then that
fire quickly goes away. He says in verse 4, Jude verse
4, for there are certain men crept in unawares who were before
of old ordained to this condemnation. It's on purpose. Ungodly men. Turning the grace of our God
into lasciviousness. They take grace and say that's
a license to sin. You can go do whatever you want.
That's what you're preaching. I've heard Henry say that before.
An old wise preacher told him when he was young. He said if
in your service to the gospel, if someone at some point in time
doesn't say you're an antinomian, they said you're not preaching
the gospel. You're not attacked for it. But some creep in and
they turn it into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God
and our Lord Jesus Christ. These false preachers that fail,
they looked and they sounded good. Oh, it's easy to listen
to. They said a lot of true things.
They said some truth, but only for a season. Look there in verse
11. Judah leavened. Woe unto them,
for they have gone the way of Cain, and ran greedily after
the heir of Balaam for reward." They were looking out for themselves.
"...and perished at the gainsaying of Cor. These are spots in your
feasts of charity." These are blemishes in this feast of love
that we have, and we're going to have them. When they feast
with you, feeding themselves without fear. That means they
come seeking to devour. Feeding without fear. Clouds
are they without water, carried about of winds. Right now, if
we saw a big dark cloud coming, I'd be excited. It's been a long
time since I'm not used to not seeing rain. Especially if I've
got a garden out there. I see that cloud coming. Oh,
it's dark. It looks good. It may sound good. And the wind carries it away
and it goes clean over my house and not one drop of water falls.
What good to me was that cloud? That was nothing but disappointment,
wasn't it? And it said that trees whose fruit withereth without
fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Seems they have
the fruit of the spirit. Looks like fruit, but it withers.
And then it's quickly gone. And it's twice dead. Plucked
up by the roots. Raging waves of the sea foaming
out their own shame. Wandering stars. To whom is reserved
the blackness of darkness forever. Those wandering stars are shooting
stars. We saw one the other night. On the way home Sunday night.
There's a billion stars in our galaxy. And they consistently,
smally, they twinkle. Steady, they preach the gospel.
And here comes one that seems bright for a moment, shoots overhead. We forget about them other ones,
don't we? Oh, we look at that one. Oh, let's pay attention
to that one. And like a poof of wind, it's gone. There are
steady ones up there, still shining. Even the men that you and I would
think are the best of men, Oh, that person's an example. They
look good. They sound good. They seem to
be fighting the good fight. They fizzle out. They are falling. And that is frightening to me.
Men a lot better than me, men that know a lot more than I know,
have been like that shooting star. The Lord's let them fizzle
out. This was ordained. This was aforeappointed. And it wasn't just men. Just
normal folks like us. Preachers have done this, but
there was an apostle that failed. Think of that. Judas Iscariot
failed. I wouldn't want to be associated
with him. If I was Jude, my name was Judas, I'd go by a handle
too. I'd go by my middle name. I don't
want to be associated with that. An apostle failed. But it wasn't just man that failed.
It wasn't just an apostle that failed. Cities failed. Look here
in verse 7, Jude 7. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and
the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over
to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth
for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Being
a man standing alone, it is not possible to keep yourselves from
falling. Being a preacher, that doesn't
keep me from falling. I'm no different. An apostle
is no different. Can't keep ourselves from falling.
And being a whole city, those twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah,
full of seeds of Adam, trying anything we can, we fall. Now
some may say, now if we unite the cities, if we could get all
these big towns together, get this nation a Christian nation,
boy, we could turn the tide then, couldn't we? We're going to be
crusaders. Not so. Look here in verse 5. I will therefore put you in remembrance. He says, let me remind you something.
Though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the
people out of the land of Egypt afterward, destroyed them that
believed not. Mans fallen, cities have fallen,
nations have fallen. A unified band of men were not
able, in and of themselves, to keep themselves from sin, from
what we are. Not able to be made righteous.
We can't make ourselves righteous. We can't keep ourselves from
sin. Only to continue further down
the road of depravity. God brought a peculiar people
out of Egypt. He had a physical Israel and
He brought them out from underneath the rule of Pharaoh. But a couple
million people, Two or three million people. Most of them
died in the wilderness. All that came out of Egypt, all
that multitude, two people entered the land of Canaan. Man fell,
whole cities fell, whole nations fell. We're still prideful. I won't. That's what my old flesh
says, not me. Angels fell too. Look here in
verse 6. And the angels which kept not
their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath
reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment
of the great day." Consider that for a moment. Angels fail. John wrote to us in Revelation
12, so there appeared another wonder in heaven. And behold,
a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven
crowns upon his head, and his tail drew the third part of the
stars of heaven and did cast them to the earth." One third
of the angels were drawn away by his tail. It says that false
prophets draw men unto themselves with Satan. took his tail and
drew a third of the angels to himself. I ask you this. I ask myself this. If an individual
man, if a preacher, if an apostle, a city, a nation, or an angel
can fall, where does that leave me? Where does that leave you? Utterly helpless. We cannot keep
ourselves from falling. If the Holy Spirit convicts us
of what we are, if he destroys our confidence in our ability,
in ourselves, and makes us see we're completely unable to save
our own souls, who can we look to for assurance? Who can we
look to for hope? Who can we look to that's able?
I ain't. You're not. Nobody else we know
is. It can't be a man. They fall. It can't be one of
us. It can't be a country that we
look to. It can't be a government. It
can't be an angel. There in verse 24, after Jude
warns us of all this, that's a scary, trembling, frightening
thought. He warns us of all these things. He says in verse 24, Told you all that, tell you this.
Now, unto Him that is able to keep you from falling and present
you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Jude just waylaid every stronghold
we could imagine on standing in, and he says Christ is able. I ask you another question. How
can we know for sure? This is important. This is not
just life and death. This is eternal life and eternal
death. It's more than just this body
that we're talking about. I ask first, how is it possible
to know Christ is able? Let's turn to Hebrews chapter
11. I want us to look to some saints that knew Christ was able. We're going to start early on
in chronological order and work a little closer to where we are
now. But there in Hebrews chapter 11, we're going to read about
Abraham. Hebrews 11 verse 17. By faith, Abraham, when he was
tried, offered up Isaac. And he that had received the
promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was
said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called." Now think about
that. His only son. The Lord said,
I'll make a promise to you, and it's going to be in the lineage
of that one, not Ishmael, of Isaac. The Savior is going to
come. And God said, now take him up
that mountain and kill him. Verse 19, accounting that God was able
to raise him up even from the dead. No one had ever been raised
from the dead at this point. There were some apostles that
had seen this happen. A few people had been raised
from the dead. This hadn't happened yet. Abraham accounted that God
was able to raise him up. He knew. He knew Christ was able
to keep His promises. How did He know? Let's look at
another one. Daniel chapter 3. We'll look
at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. King Nebuchadnezzar, we remember,
made a huge golden image and he raised that up and he decreed
and announced it all over that everyone must fall down and worship
this big golden idol whenever the music went off. They had
a big orchestra that played. And every time you heard that,
you had to fall down and worship this graven image. And if you
didn't, they would take you to these big blast furnaces. That's
where they made bricks and stuff. And they'd fire that furnace
up real hot, and they would throw you in it and kill you. They
put this word out, this decree. And so the music went off, and
there was three people, three Jews and their fallen Chaldeans
that did not bow. and word got back to the king.
Look here in verse 13, Daniel 3, 13. Then Nebuchadnezzar, in
his rage and fury, commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego. Then they brought these men before
the king. Nebuchadnezzar spake and said
unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Do ye
not serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have
set up? Now if you be ready, that at
what time you hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harpet,
sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, whenever
you hear that sound go off, that concert playing, you fall down
and worship the image which I've made well. He gave him a strong
warning. He said, now if you do what I
told you to do and that music goes off, we're fine. Everything's
well. But if you worship not, you 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 hand?" Here's this powerful king, puts
an idol up, says, worship him. And who's the God that can take
you out of my hand? I'm the king. I'm the boss. That's bold, isn't
it? That's bold. But hold on. It
gets bolder. There in verse 16, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar,
we are not careful to answer thee in this manner. I ain't
gonna take two seconds to think about it. I'm not gonna put any
care in my answer. I'm not gonna put any thought
in my answer. Verse 17, if it be so, you throw us in there. Our God whom we serve is able
to deliver us. from the burning, fiery furnace,
and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king." They said,
your hand's nothing. You put us in that fire, try
to burn us. Our Lord is able to deliver us. Verse 18, but if not, if you
don't throw us in that fiery furnace, if this was just a warning,
be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods,
nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. They
said, you can burn us or not, it ain't happening. because Christ
is able. They were thrown in that fire.
It consumed the men that threw them in. It killed them. But
whenever they looked into that fire, the people saw four people.
Three of them were thrown in, but they saw four. And when three
came out, they didn't even smell of smoke. He proved he was able. And he proved to that whole group
of people, everyone that saw the four and everyone that smelled
them, they knew them boys told the truth. He is able. He was able to deliver them physically
and they knew he was able to deliver them spiritually. Now
turn to 2 Timothy. Paul knew Christ was able. And he knew it in a common way.
In the same way that Abraham knew for certain. Abraham knew
enough to kill his son. And he knew in the same way,
Paul knew in the same way as those three in the fiery furnace
knew. Enough to be willing to be cast
into a furnace. They knew. And Paul knew. There in 2 Timothy
1 verse 12. For the which cause I also suffer
these things, nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom
I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I have committed unto him against that day." What was it
Paul committed unto Christ against that day? He committed his fall. He committed his sin to Christ
and Christ took it to Calvary. And in that act, not just forgiveness,
he committed his new spirit from falling. You saved me from what
I was. I was nothing but falling. You
gave me a new spirit and that new man put in me will not fall
because of what you accomplished that day. A man or woman can
know that Christ is able to keep us from falling. We can know
that Christ can keep our physical bodies. We can know that Christ
will raise our souls once this body of death passes away. And
we can know that our new spirit put in us, that we've committed
to Christ, will be kept forever. Now back to our text. We can
know that He's able. But how? How can a sinner have
confidence that Christ is able? How can we know for certain He
can keep us from falling and present us faultless before His
glory? It says in verse 25, to the only
wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power
both now and ever. Amen. It says there, only wise
God our Savior. It doesn't say only wise God
and our Savior. Only wise God our Savior. God
is our Savior. Christ is God. We can have full
assurance that He is able because of who He is. Matthew 1.21 says, And she shall
bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from our sins. He is the Savior. Who's the Savior? The only wise God. He is God. The one who will save his people,
keep them from falling, and present them faultless is the Savior,
God. Christ Jesus the Lord. Philippians
2.6 it says, Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery
to be equal with God? There's a lot of people that
take a fight with what I'm saying. Hold on now, these are different
people. Christ is God. He said he thought it not robbery
to be equal. Why is that? John told us in John 1. In the
beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was
God. Behold, a virgin shall be with
child, and bring forth a son, and they shall call his name
Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. Isaiah 9, 6 says,
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the
government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall
be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father. One and the same. The triune
God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. We
are told God is in these three distinct persons. But these three
persons of God, it's not a chain of command like they have in
the military. And people do funny things with
their hands and they say, one's up here, one's down here, and
one's on either side or something. These three are one. Christ,
was He the servant of the Father? Yes, He was. Is Christ the Son
of God? Yes, He is. The Scriptures tell
us plainly, He is God's Son. And He is His servant. But Christ is God. Christ was
not a man of God. He was the God-man. If He was
just a man, we would have no hope in Him. A man can't keep
himself, can he? If He was some kind of angel,
we could have no hope in that. Angels can fall, we just saw
that. Turn over 1 Timothy chapter 3. 1 Timothy chapter 3, Christ, the
Lord God was a servant because you and I must be servants of
God. Christ the Almighty God was the
Son of God because we must be sons to be heirs. In this earth, I won't be able
to grasp what it is that God became a man. I won't be able
to grasp in this earth that everything required of me before a holy
God was absolutely completed in Christ. We say these things,
and I feel like it's just lip service. When you study, you
see the immensity of it. Everything required of us is
Him. 1 Timothy 3, all that stuff is
mysterious, isn't it? This could be grounds for a lot
of controversy, isn't it? 1 Timothy 3, 16. and without controversy, without
a doubt, without arguing. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Christ came in human form. God
came in human form. Justified in the Spirit, God
the Holy Spirit declared that Jesus the Christ is the living
God. Seeing of angels, those that
ministered to Him, they saw Him and they declared, Christ Jesus
is the Savior. He is God. Preached unto the
Gentiles. Now here, without controversy,
is a great mystery. Us poor old Gentiles, had God
in human flesh come to us and preach Himself to us. Then, back
then, in times of old, He came in person. He physically spoke
to man and preached to him. And now we have His Word preached
to us. His Word is preserved and He
still preaches through the Spirit to His people. Comforts them.
And not just preached, but preached in His power. It says, Believed
on in the world, dead, fallen sinners, me and you, we are made
to believe this. That's a mystery. Received up
into glory. The cross died for the sins of
His people, making us free from sin and giving us His holy nature. When the wrath of His holy law
was satisfied, He swallowed all that wrath. He ascended on high. Great mystery. The one true God
and Savior, Jesus Christ. We can rest assured He is able
because of who He is. He's the Almighty God. I can
think of no greater to save me. There is none greater. So we
see who He is. That's how we can know He is
able. What He did. Through what He
did, we can know He is able. Let's look here in Philippians
chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. We can know Christ is able to
keep us from falling because of what He did. We've seen His
person. He's God. And now we'll see His
work, what He accomplished. Philippians 2.7. But made Himself
of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and
was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross." What does that mean? He became obedient
to death, even the death of the cross. On that cross, Hebrews
1-3 tells us, when he had by himself purged our sins. It was accomplished. Christ the
Holy God did for His people what the law could not do. The law
can only condemn us and it can only kill us, not give us life
and lift us up. What the law couldn't do, what
the blood of bulls and goats could not accomplish, Christ's
blood did. You hath He quickened who are
dead in trespasses and sins. The salvation and the sanctifying
of his sheep was finished forever. Then Christ sat down on the right
hand of the majesty on high. Why did he sit down? The work
was finished. Ain't nothing else to do. Sit
down and rest. Colossians 2.13 says, "...and
you being dead in your sins, and in the uncircumcision of
your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven
you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of the ordinances
that was against us, which is contrary to us, we ain't like
that law, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross."
Because of the precious blood of God shed on that cross, all
of our sins are blotted out. They were nailed there on His
cross with Him. And divine, holy justice is completely
satisfied. So first, Christ is able because
of who He is, His person. He's God. Second, He's able because
of what He did, His work. The total salvation of His people. Saving us. Not just clearing
us. Not just making it go away. Making us holy. Giving us His
righteousness. And lastly, we know Christ is
able because of where He is now. Let's turn over to Hebrews chapter
1. Hebrews chapter 1. Start there in verse one, Hebrews
1.1, God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in
time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last
days spoken unto us by his Son, says he preached to the Gentiles,
we believe, didn't he? Whom he hath appointed heir of
all things, there's the king of kings, by whom also he made
the worlds, Christ made the world. Well, you say in Genesis, but
God said, let there be light. He's God. Who being in the brightness
of His glory and the express image of His person and upholding
all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high. It's finished. The work's done. Our God sat down on His throne. Look down at Hebrews 1.8. It's
the Lord speaking. It says, "...but unto the Son
he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever." God called
the Son, God. Thy throne, O God, is forever
and ever. A scepter of righteousness and
a scepter of Thy kingdom. The King of kings, the Lord of
lords, right now, The Almighty God is seated on His eternal
throne and He is ruling and He is reigning all things according
to His holy sovereign will. Turn over to chapter 7, Hebrews
7, verse 25. Setting on His deserved throne
with that sepulcher of righteousness, ruling and reigning all things,
He still saves His people and He makes intercession for His
people. What a thought! What a thought! Hebrews 7.25, 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 them. If the God who is able, our Savior,
in His person and in His work has accomplished all things.
If our salvation is to the uttermost and it's finished, He's sat down
and He's interceding for us until we get there. What can we add? What kind of foolishness could
I say that you've got to do something? It's done and it was done by
the God. We don't have a part in this.
What confidence we have. Now back to our text. Jude, verse
24. I pray the children of God are
given the ability to see Christ is God. Our Savior is the God. His work is fully accomplished. And right now He's seated on
His eternal throne. It is finished. All that's ever
required or ever will be required, He has completed it. If He gives
you a heart to see that, to believe that, you can say with Jude,
here in verse 24, now, unto Him that is able to keep me from
falling, keep you from falling, and present me faultless, present
you faultless, before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. to the only wise God, our Savior,
be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. Amen. I hope that's a blessing to you.
Let's pray together.