May mercy, peace,
and love be multiplied to you. Jude 2
That’s the greeting
and blessing to the reader at the start of Jude, the 2nd last book
of the Bible, from which today’s Epistle reading is taken, hear again verses 24
& 25:
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, 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.
This is our text.
Looking through my
files, it looks like this is the first time I have ever preached on a text from
Jude. It’s just a little book – a couple pages in our English Bibles. It’s not
big enough to have chapters, only verses. That’s why the reading today is Jude
20-25. No Chapter mentioned. Jude wrote
this little document, this short sermon in response to some bad behavior and misguided
attitudes among the Christians of the time, a few years after Jesus’ ascended
into heaven.
Jude says in the 4th
verse that there are people who Jude 1:4
For certain people have “crept in
unnoticed . . . ungodly people, who
change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny our only
Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
This is a problem
that will come up every so often. Jesus died for our sins. Because of Him we
are forgiven and made pure. In God’s eyes, it’s as if we have never sinned. So
then some people, the devil and our own sinful nature would like to change that
grace of God into license, or freedom and permission to sin again, and come up
with new ways to sin.
So to counteract
this false and misleading attitude Jude tells us Christians what to do. You can
easily follow the teaching of Jude in this reading, by concentrating on some
keep words: Build, Pray, Keep and Wait.
First, Build
Jude says, “But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith.” Christians
aren’t to be lazy about this most holy faith we have. It’s good you’ve got
faith. It’s a gracious, good gift. But you ought not be complacent about it.
Build yourself up in the faith. False and misleading attitudes easily creep in
when faith is neglected, and not built up. You build yourself up in this most
holy faith by reading and hearing the Word of God, and by having communion in
the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
Second, Pray
Jude says, “Pray in the Holy Spirit.” Our highest concern in this life should be
that our faith not grow tired or worn out, or distorted by false ideas. And we
should bring our highest concerns to the Lord in prayer with the help of God
the Holy Spirit. So pray for the strengthening of you faith. And you can pray
for such with words like these: “Thy Kingdom come.” Lord, we want to be in and
remain in your Kingdom until we die. So strengthen our faith.
Third, Keep
Keep yourselves in
the love of God. Jude is troubled by those who turn God’s grace into license
for immorality. So he tells us all, keep yourselves in the love of God. All
morality is summed up with love. Love for God and love for others. Keep
yourselves in the love of God.
The false attitude
that we can do whatever we want because the Gospel gives us freedom, is a very
unloving attitude. If your thoughts and words and actions are motivated by the
license to do what you want, then what others want suffers, and your love for
God and His righteousness grows cold.
Fourth, Wait
“. . . waiting for
the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.”
Jude is writing
words of encouragement here to people who must wait for the salvation of the
Lord to be revealed.
That’s the message
Jesus gave to His disciples as they would have to wait for the salvation to
come, even as it seems like everything in heaven and earth was falling down
around them. Waiting is the message of the fig tree, whose buds are a sign that
spring is coming, just wait. Our Lord’s command to “Wait” is a call to stay
awake, to stay watchful, and to believe continually the promises He has made
that He will come and save.
Jude writes to give
us a blessing and comfort for this meantime, while we wait for the Lord. Here’s His very encouraging blessing:
Jude 1:24-25 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.
Your God and Savior
is able to keep you from stumbling. That is a very important word to hear when
you consider that the times are going to get worse toward the end. The end
times can be fearful. These end times can make us doubt ourselves. We might, in
fear say something like, when it comes down to it, will I be able to stand
strong?
Your God and Savior
is able to keep you from stumbling. Stumbling – it reminds me of one of those
bad dreams, where you are in a hurry, running from some evil, time is running
out and you stumble and fall at every other step.
I hear people, good
Christian people, say things like this: “Why do I keep sinning?” “Am I not a
good believer if I keep stumbling on the same sins?” “Why can’t I ever seem to
get better and experience some victory over sin?” Why do I continue to look at
others with lust or with coveting in my thoughts? Why do get so angry and
impatient with my spouse and others that I love? Why do I procrastinate and not
carry out my responsibilities faithfully?”
Will the initial
answer is kind of discouraging: It’s
your nature to do so. It is impossible not to sin. That’s a big part of the
reason why we so long for the Lord to come and bring us salvation and rescue us
from our sinful nature.
But there’s a
further answer given here in Jude’s blessing to us at the end of his little
book: God is able to keep you from
stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with
great joy,
If you are
frustrated with your own inabilities to do right and to stop sinning, I ask you
this, do you believe what Jude says? Do you believe that God is able to keep
you from stumbling and to present you blameless?
There’s a great
Gospel message there. Jesus has been sent by God into this world and into our
human history to be the Son of God and the Son of Man at the same time. He
lived a perfect life, but then sacrificed that perfect life in place us. He
took the blame for us, that we might be blameless. Blameless. Isn’t that a good
feeling, if you can fully believe it.
When you are in the
midst of struggling with your sins and feeling the ugly consequences they have
in your life, look to Jesus who stood up for you and took the blame for you to
make you blameless. Now your Lord is at work to keep you from stumbling. And He
is able; He can do that.
And on the last day
he will present you blameless before the
presence of his glory with great joy,
“Present you” is the best way to say it in English. But the word
that Jude used here is the root word of our word “Status” it’s first meaning is
to stand. It’s the picture we can have in our mind. The Lord keeps you from
stumbling, He lifts you up, He stands you up in the glory of God His Father.
When you feel self
doubt, like you cant win, you can’t do anything right, nothing good enough.
Hear the blessing Jude has for us. And remember that the Lord has promised He
will keep us from stumbling. He will lift us up. He will stand us in the glory
of God.
Bold shall I stand in that great day,
for who aught to my
charge shall lay?
Fully absolved
through these I am,
from sin and fear,
from guilt and shame.
Amen.
Now receive the
blessing
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, 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.
