Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
Now, the message today will be taken from the book of Jude,
the little book of Jude. It's the second to the last book
of the Bible, right before Revelation. And it's Jude, verses 24 and
25, the last two verses of the book of Jude. The title of the
message is, The Lord God is Able. The Lord God is Able. For the
past several weeks, I've been dealing with the issue of the
eternal security of the saved, the eternal security of a true
believer. And I've been going through several
messages on that subject, taking several passages of scripture,
hopefully trying to show you from the Bible all the aspects
that prove from the scripture that if a sinner is truly saved
by the grace of God through the Lord Jesus Christ, that sinner
is eternally secure in salvation. He cannot, she cannot lose that
salvation. There's no such thing in the
Bible concerning true salvation real salvation of a sinner being
saved one day and lost the next, or however people put that. And
I know the biggest objection to that is, well, somebody says,
well, if that's true, then I don't have to obey, I don't have to
believe. That is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches
that the work of salvation by the grace of God through Christ
is a work done for God's people, by Jesus Christ on the cross
in his redemptive work, and also it's a work in his people, and
that's the work of Christ by the Holy Spirit in the new birth.
So we've seen some of that. But one of the things that I've
been trying to stress in this program concerning the subject
of the eternal security of the believer, of the saved, is that
salvation, all of salvation, The beginning of it, the continuation
of it, and the final end of it, coming to
its culmination, rather, is all of grace, not conditioned on
me or on you or on any sinner, but all conditioned on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ fulfilled those conditions.
He saves us by grace, He keeps us by grace, and He'll bring
us to glory by grace. Bringing us to glory means to
the eternal bliss of heaven, the new heavens and the new earth.
All who believe in Him. And you say, well, aren't there
conditions for salvation, such as, doesn't the Bible say, he
that believeth not shall be damned, he that believes and is baptized
shall be saved? And the Bible says that. You're
not going to be saved without believing. You're not going to
be preserved or kept without believing and following Christ. You're not going to enter glory
without believing. But our believing is not the
condition that we meet out of our own power, our own goodness,
or our own will in order to attain or maintain or complete salvation. Our believing is the gift of
God that evidences that we are saved by grace, kept by grace,
and that we'll enter glory by grace. Now, somebody might say,
well, you're just splitting hairs there. That really doesn't matter.
Now let me tell you something now. It does matter. And I'll
tell you why. Because salvation, in all of
its aspects, is about the glory of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible says, let no man
glory in himself, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. God gets all the glory. You see,
what I'm telling you is this. As a saved person, I can tell
you right now, I did not make the difference in my salvation.
Christ made the difference. It's the grace of God alone that
made the difference. Here's a person who hears the
gospel, and here's another person who hears the gospel. One believes,
one doesn't. Why? Is it because the one who
believes is better, less stubborn, less obstinate, less rebellious? Is it because the one who believes
has a softer heart, a kinder heart, a better heart? Is that
what the Bible teaches? I know that's what people really
believe even though they may not state it that way. But is
that what the Bible teaches? And the answer is no. The answer
in the Bible is what we don't want to hear by nature. By nature
means as we naturally are. You see, the Bible tells us that
we all fell in Adam and that we were totally ruined by the
fall. That we're born dead in trespasses
and sins. That our natural heart, our natural
mind, Our natural affections, our natural will is in bondage
to sin and self and left to ourselves. We will not believe. We will not receive Christ. We will not call upon the Lord. We will not decide for Him if
left to ourselves. You see, that's why Christ told
Nicodemus, you must be born again or you cannot see the kingdom
of heaven. Salvation is not by the will of man, it's by the
will of God. So I've been trying to stress
that Christ fulfilled all conditions and that salvation is not by
our power, our goodness, or our will. It's by the power, goodness,
and will of God. But that doesn't negate or cancel
out the fact that we must believe. You say, well, that's all sounds
like a paradox to me. Well, my friend, the Bible presents
many paradoxes that you can't figure out, but don't try to
figure them out by denying the truth, even though you can't
grasp it. But here's what I want you to
see. Salvation is not by the goodness or the abilities or
the will of man. It's by the goodness, the ability
and the will of God. Now in the book of Jude, where
our message is from. The book of Jude, that little
book of Jude, which deals with the church in the last days,
and it talks about false preachers, different kinds of false preachers
coming in, trying to draw those who profess to believe in Christ
away from Christ, away from the gospel. And the book of Jude
is a warning to beware of these kinds of people. Don't listen
to them. Don't follow them, because they'll lead you away from Christ.
They'll lead you away from salvation by grace. They'll lead you away
from His righteousness to trying to establish your own. You see,
salvation is based on the righteousness of God, which is the merits of
Christ's obedience unto death as the substitute and surety
of His people. When a person comes to believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, what does that person do? Well, by
the power and grace of God, he comes to submit to Christ as
his only righteousness before God. But now these false preachers
in Jude, they'll try to steer you away from that. They'll try
to draw you away from that. Look to yourself. Look to others. So beware of that. But in the
end of the book, in these last two verses, he gives sort of
a goodbye to them by ascribing glory to God. And listen to what
he says in verse 24 of Jude. He says, now unto him, that's
God, 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, this is verse 25, to the only wise God,
our savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now
and ever, amen. Now that's the summation of the
eternal security of the believer right there in two verses. Let's
look at what it says. Now, first of all, he says, now
unto him, who is the him there, that's God Almighty. That's God
who is the God of all glory. That's the God who is the believer's
heavenly Father. Christ taught his disciples to
pray, our Father which art in heaven. You see, God is the believer's
Father. Heavenly Father. Well, how can
He be the Father to a sinner? You see, the Bible teaches that
God must judge and punish sin. He cannot look over it or deny
it or ignore it. He's a just God. The soul that
sinneth must surely die. The wages of sin is death. To
a person who is a sinner standing before God without Jesus Christ
without having been washed in His blood, clothed in His righteousness,
you see. Without that, what is God to
that person? He's not a loving, merciful Father.
He cannot be, because He must remain true to Himself. He must
honor Himself above all things. God cannot deny Himself. That means He cannot deny His
holiness. He cannot deny His justice and
truth. You see, yes, God is a merciful
God and He cannot deny His mercy. He's a loving God. He cannot
deny His love. But you see, the point of salvation
by the grace of God in Christ is that God must be both a righteous
judge as well as a loving Father. How can that be? And that's the
great mystery of the ages. That's the mystery that is uncovered
only in the gospel message. No other religion even addresses
that question, let alone answers it. How can a man, a sinful,
wretched, fallen, rebellious man, who deserves nothing but
death and hell, how can such a man be just with holy God? How can God forgive my sins? How is that possible? He must
punish sin. You say, oh, but he hates sin,
but he loves the sinner. That's not biblical. The Bible
says God hates all workers of iniquity. He said God loves Jacob
and hates Esau. Why? Because Jacob was a better
man than Esau? No. Because God chose to do so. And they said in Romans 9, Paul
anticipated it. That's not fair. If you're saying
that right now, Romans 9 talks about you. I'm sorry, it does. Because Paul anticipated you.
And he anticipated me too, because I used to say that too. That's
not fair. My friend, if God gave us what was fair and just, we
would all perish in damnation. Do you believe that? If you don't,
you don't believe the Bible. You see, salvation has nothing
to do with what I deserve or what I've earned. And I want
to burn that into your brain. I can't do that. It takes the
Holy Spirit to burn it into your brain, into your heart. But that's
what I want to keep emphasizing. How can a holy God forgive my
sin? God, I can tell you right now,
God forgives sin. He's a forgiving God, but he
will never forgive one sin or one million sins apart from his
law and justice being satisfied. He must be a righteous judge
as well as a loving father. How can that be? Well, the answer
is in the person, the glorious person. and the finished work
of Jesus Christ as the surety and the substitute of his people. And Christ being the surety and
the substitute of his people is the basis for the salvation
and eternal security of the saved. You see, the reason people today
believe that you can be saved one day and lost the next is
because Christ is not their surety. You know who is? They are. They are their own surety. They've
made the difference in salvation, so they make the difference in
preservation. You see what I'm saying? And
that is not salvation by grace. That is a false gospel. That's
salvation by the works and the will of man. But you see, Jude
writes here, he says, Now unto him that is able. You see, when
it comes to salvation, when it comes to preservation, I'm not
able. You're not able. You see, a person
who believes that salvation in its beginning, in its continuation,
or in its culmination, is conditioned on themselves, they do not understand
the reality of sin. What sin really is. How sin affects
them. How sin controls them. That's
why one of the first things the Holy Spirit does in conviction
is convict us of sin. Because we believe not on Christ.
You see, I don't have the ability to save myself. I don't have
the ability to keep myself. Somebody says, well, you may
not have the ability, but you can cooperate with God. It's
a cooperative effort. No, it is all of grace. I'm telling you, it's all the
mercy of God. I often tell people this. because
I think, I believe this puts things in perspective concerning
whether you agree with me or not. I think this puts things
in perspective to let you know what I believe. And here's what
I believe. Right now, I stand before God,
perfect, holy, and righteous, not by anything I am or have
done or will do or stop doing. I stand before God holy, perfect,
and righteous only in Christ who is my holiness, who is my
perfection, who is my righteousness. I am righteous in Christ. That's
what we call the imputed righteousness of Christ. The sins of God's
elect were imputed. The word imputed means to account,
to charge, to lay to the charge of or the account of. The debt
of my sins was charged, imputed to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
He went to the cross and suffered and bled and died for my sins. And what He did on that cross
is work out a righteousness, a perfection, the merits of His
obedience unto death that God imputed to me, charged to me. Christ took my debt and in return
I get his righteousness, his wealth you might say. And that's
the great exchange. So what I'm saying is I stand
before God not based on my works or my efforts, not even based
on my faith. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you will not be saved. Nobody
will be saved without believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. But
what do we believe? I believe He is all my holiness. He is all my righteousness. I
believe He is all my perfection. For Christ is the end of the
law. This is Romans 10, four. For
Christ is the end of the law. For righteousness to everyone
that believe it. You see, I think a lot of people
today, they don't have really faith in Christ. What they have
is faith in their faith. In other words, they believe
that they made the difference. Their believing is their righteousness,
or their believing is their security. But that's not true. True believers
believe that Christ is their righteousness, that Christ is
their security. And that's the difference, you
see. And that's what Judas said, now unto him that is able. Paul
said, I know whom I have believed. 2 Timothy 1.12, I know whom I
have believed. And I am persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that
day. Now, what have I committed unto him? My whole salvation.
My whole salvation in its beginning, in its continuation, and in its
culmination is committed to Christ. It's on his shoulders. And that's
what he's saying here in verse 24 of Jude. Now unto him that
is able to do what? To keep you from falling. I can't keep myself from falling.
I can't. I am commanded in the scripture
to continually look to Christ. You see, God saves and preserves
his children in the glory by his grace and power through the
Lord Jesus Christ. But I can't keep that up because
I'm a sinner, even as a saved person. We're still sinners saved
by the grace of God. That's what a Christian is. a
sinner saved by the grace of God. And Paul described it in
one place in Romans 7, 14 through 25, you can read that, where
he talks about remaining sin in even a believer while in this
world. You see, Christ has totally freed
me from the penalty of sin, the condemnation of sin. He's freed
me from the power of sin only in this sense. the power of sin
to keep me deceived in false religion and sin, and the power
of sin to keep me from believing. You see, I believe because I've
been given the gift of faith. For by grace are you saved, Ephesians
2a and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest
any man should boast. So you see, As a sinner, I still
cannot keep myself, but he's able to keep me from falling.
And verse 24 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. Now right now, legally, judicially,
objectively, I'm righteous in Christ based on his righteousness
imputed. But within myself, I'm still
a sinner. I'm continually in need of God's
grace. And if the Lord were to judge
me at any time, in my best times or my worst times, based on my
works, I would be doomed forever. But I stand in Christ, holy,
without blame, faultless in Christ. But in myself, I'm a sinner,
but in the end, as he keeps me from falling and brings me to
glory in heaven, I'll be totally free then from even the presence
of sin, the influence of sin, the contamination of sin. I'll
have a new body, a spiritual body without sin. At that time,
I'll be able to think a thought without sin. And that's an amazing
thing. I don't know what that's like.
You may think you do, but you don't. If you really understand
what sin is. And that's what this is about.
He's able to keep us from falling, keep his people from falling.
And his ability is by his grace and power in Jesus Christ. Christ
is the surety of my salvation. Over in the book of Philippians,
Chapter one, the Apostle Paul wrote in verse six to the Philippian
believers. He said, being confident of this
very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will
perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Who begun the good work in the
believer? God did. You must be born again. People today say, well, the way
you're born again is you first believe and then as a result,
you're born again. That's not what the Bible teaches.
The Bible teaches that believing is the result of the new birth.
It's kind of like this. Think about physical birth. You
don't breathe first and then you're born physically. You're
born physically and then you breathe. And it's the same way
in spiritual birth, by an analogy is what I'm saying, that you
don't believe first and then born again. You see in the new
birth, what happens? The Holy Spirit imparts spiritual
life and knowledge that we don't have by nature. He brings us
from darkness to light. He gives us, as the Bible says,
a new heart, a new spirit. God says, I'll put my spirit
within them. and calls them to walk in my
statutes. This is the work of God. Now,
he which begun that work will perfect it, perform it. That
means complete it. In other words, what God starts,
He doesn't quit and stop on. What God starts, He finishes.
And the Bible says in Ephesians 2.10, we, that is believers,
sinners saved by grace, washed in the blood of Christ, clothed
in his righteousness, regenerated by the Spirit, we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus, unto, not because of, but unto good
works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. So he's able to keep us from falling and he'll present
his people faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding
joy. God's people are already faultless
in Christ, but then in glory, they'll be totally faultless,
not only in Christ, but in themselves. Now, the whole basis and goal
of this is the glory of God. Verse 25 of the book of Jude.
To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion
and power, both now and ever. Amen. Now what he's saying there
is this. When a sinner comes to, is brought
by the Holy Spirit to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
that sinner goes through his life, it may be a short life,
it may be a long life, But all that process of being preserved
by the grace of God, all of that process of that center persevering
in the faith. You know, the Bible commands
God's people to persevere, continue. Work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling. That doesn't mean, that doesn't
preach, teach salvation. That's Philippians 2.12. That
doesn't teach salvation by works or preservation by works. When
he says work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, what
he means is persevere in the faith. One translation says work
out of your salvation. That doesn't matter. What he's
saying is that I am to work hard to keep myself looking to Christ. Hebrews 12, two talks about looking
unto Jesus, the author and what? Finisher, completer of my faith. So Christ is my surety. Christ
is the power. Christ is the glory. So work
out your own salvation with fear and trembling simply means to
continue to look to Christ. And so we are commanded to persevere.
And then the next verse says, it's God that works in you. both
the will to do his good pleasure. Well, I hope this message has
been helpful and I hope you'll join us next week for another
message from God's word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.