A Doxology of Certainty
Notes
Transcript
Jude 24-25 ESV
24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Today, as we conclude this series of sermons from the epistle of Jude, we circle back, so to speak, as Jude reminds his readers of their Source of success and perseverance in a world filled with such evil and calamity.
Anytime that someone wants to make a case for something, they begin by stating the main thing that they hope to see happen, they then tell you why it should happen, often by stating the disadvantages of it not happening, and then concluding by stating why, in light of the information received you should be in favour of whatever it is that you’re making a case for.
So it is with the Holy Scriptures. Sometimes we may look at the Bible as though it is a very neat account about some very neat things that happen throughout history to some very neat people. But in reality, the entirety of the Bible, every part of it, is about the work of redemption. And its main character is not Moses, or Daniel, or Peter, or Paul, no, its main Character is God Himself.
As John Calvin says in his commentary on the fifth psalm: “The whole world is a theatre for the display of the divine goodness, wisdom, justice, and power”. The Bible is a Book about God, to the glory of Godand we, and all of creation for that matter are the beneficiaries of the outworking of God’s glorification.
And so, Jude leaves off his epistle by praising and glorifying God in a beautiful doxology. Indeed, every time that we speak of the things of God, we must begin with God and conclude with the praise and glorification of God. And here, in our reading for today, Jude makes the case for the glorification of God in all things.
Throughout our study in this epistle of Jude, we have observed how those to whom Jude is writing to are among the elect people of God, those who belong to Him. He then spoke of how there were false teachers who had crept into orthodox circles and had corrupted many. Jude then encouraged the elect to whom he was writing to continue to follow the orthodox faith and stay true to the God Who had revealed Himself to them in salvation.
Now, to conclude his epistle, Jude speaks of how God, because He is Who He is, will do that which He swore to do and thus, in the midst of hardship, these must praise and glorify God Who will bring to completion what He has started.
We see this as we begin our exposition of verse 24, where it begins by saying:
Jude 24a ESV
24a Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling
The first thing that I want us to notice here is how this verse, which begins the couplet of verses that close this epistle begins with the word, “now”.
Whenever we observe the literary context of this epistle and the placement of these final two verses, we see just how beautiful these verses are, and I believe that the placement of the word, “now” at the beginning of these final verses perfectly sums up the most important aspect of this epistle.
When we observe the placement of the word, “now” in our text, it indicates that something prior to the word has already been adequately established.
And we’ve already said that what has been adequately established is that there were indeed false teachers in the midst of the people of God, but the people of God were to remain faithful to the orthodox faith, even while in the midst of those who oppose the faith.
And Jude says, “now”, with that being established, the conclusion is that God is able to keep His elect people who are surrounded by danger from stumbling.
Now, when Jude speaks of stumbling here, he doesn’t just mean a momentary lapse in faith; after all, we all have that from time to time. But rather, what he speaks of is a final falling away from the faith.
And there are indeed some people who have made professions of faith who nonetheless fall away. But the reason why they fall away is because they merely made a verbal profession of faith. God had never caused them to be reborn, had never given them a new heart, a new heart that was capable of, and willing to love Him.
But as Jude says here, he is speaking to “you”. And the “you” whom he is referring to are those who are truly among God’s elect people.
Thus, Jude says that God is able and in fact does keep His elect people, every last one of them from stumbling into totally falling away as He works through His people in order to ensure that their purity and salvation remains secure.
And this praise is directed toward God not only because He is able to keep His people from stumbling, but also, as the second half of this 24th verse tells us, He is able:
Jude 24b ESV
24b to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,
What a wonderful proclamation this is! In the midst of danger and impurity everywhere, God will keep you, who are among His people from stumbling, and will finally present you “blameless”.
To be blameless means to be innocent of wrongdoing and without guilt. Now, obviously, we know that even as born-again Christians, we often find ourselves guilty of wrongdoing, but Jude speaks here of being “presented” blameless. What this indicates is that having the righteousness of Christ applied to us, we are then presented without guilt.
And this presentation, Jude tells us, will be “before the presence of His glory with great joy”. Thus, the elect people of God, being made blameless through the righteousness of Christ being applied to them are finally glorified through complete redemption and full salvation.
Because of what God graciously does on behalf of His elect people, they are able to stand before God where there will be the greatest joy, celebrating the consummation of God’s promises to us.
Then, as we go to the 25th verse, Jude relays why God is worthy of our praise.
That verse begins by simply saying:
Jude 25a ESV
25a to the only God,
And this may appear to be a simple saying, yet it is foundational and profound beyond measure. Jude does not simply say “to God”, though that most certainly would have been enough, but in stressing that God is the “only God”, what Jude stresses is God’s utter uniqueness.
This reveals that God and the orthodox gospel which proclaims Him is indeed the only legitimate gospel that proclaims the only legitimate God. Thus, in addressing this to the “only God”,Jude once again reveals that those who are not subscribing to the only legitimate gospel are not worshipping the only legitimate God.
Jude then goes on to describe this one and only God as:
Jude 25b ESV
25b our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord,
God is identified here as “our Savior”. This tells us that there is something that we needed to be saved from. And that which we needed to be saved from was sin and eternal destruction. And God is the One Who rescues believers from this sin and eternal destruction.
Now, we place special emphasis here on the fact that Jude identifies God as “our Savior”. So, if God is the Savior from sin and eternal condemnation and if He is identified as “our Savior” then we must conclude that He is the Savior from sin and eternal condemnation only of those who are identified as “our” by Jude.
So, who is the “our”? Well, certainly it is not the whole world in general. God does not save everyone in the world from sin and eternal condemnation, for if He did, then everyone in the world would be saved from it.
We would generally think that the “our” here would be in reference to those whom Jude is immediatelyspeaking to, namely, himself and those to whom he is writing. But of course, we know that God is the Savior from sin and condemnation of more than just Jude and the immediate recipients of his epistle.
Rather, “our” is in reference to those whom God has been pleased to save, to the elect people of God. God is not the Savior of the world in general, but rather, He is the Savior of those whom He has been pleased to save. That seems to make sense to me.
And God saves us, Jude says, “through Jesus Christ our Lord.” What this signifies is that the salvation of God’s elect people is manifest through Jesus Christ. Indeed, it signifies that it is effectedthrough Jesus Christ, through He Who alone is able tomake atonement for sins.
And thus, we as the elect people of God, while living as pilgrims in a world that is not our home, must praise and glorify the only God, the God Who is our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord.
And as our reading continues, we see that to this great God of ours belongs first:
Jude 25c ESV
25c glory,
The glory which Jude speaks of here is in reference to the praise which is to be directed towards God’s glorious nature made manifest to us.
In other words, Jude says that we as the elect people of God know of the glorious nature of God because He has revealed it to us. Thus, we attribute to Him glory. We wish to see others attribute glory to Him. And we declare that praise is due to Him because of His glorious nature which we testify of.
In addition to this, Jude declares that to this great God of ours belongs:
Jude 25d ESV
25d majesty,
“Majesty” is in reference to a state of greatness and preeminence. Thus, Jude declares the greatness of God, that He is indeed preeminent over all things, surpassing all other things, indeed, being distinguished from all other things.
Thus, Jude says that he and the elect people of God ascribe majesty to God. That is, they recognize God as supreme and absolutely other than.
So often there are many who view God as one would view another person: that He ought to do this, that He ought to do that, that He owes me this, that He owes me that, or even worse, that He can be fooled as a man is fooled. But as for those whom He has redeemed, we ascribe to Him the utmost majesty.
Jude then declares that to this great and majestic God of ours belongs:
Jude 25e ESV
25e dominion, and authority
Dominion indicates sovereignty and control. God holds all dominion, controlling, ruling everything that there is. And God possesses all authority, which means that He has the right and the ability to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience to Him.
While there are many who would like to limit God’s dominion and authority, the elect people of God rightly recognize God’s sovereign rule over creation as its rightful King. And as He rules, there is no one who can thwart His plans or stay His sovereign hand.
And these attributes of God, Jude says, are grounds for believers to praise God:
Jude 25f ESV
25f before all time and now and forever.
What this indicates is that God has been worthy of all praise from eternity past. He is worthy of all praise now. And because He is Who He is and will never change, He will continue to be worthy of all praise forevermore.
And the proper response that the elect people of God are to give to this charge of Jude is the last word of this epistle:
Jude 25g ESV
25g Amen.
Amen. So be it!
Indeed, may it be that we, as the redeemed people of God ascribe glory, majesty, dominion, and authority to our God forevermore. May we do this amid the chaos, amid the seeming uncertainty, for we know that our God, His reign, His sovereignty is certain for all time!
Amen?
