This exposition of Jude 24-25 by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday evening, February 10, 2019.
Intro:
It has been a hard letter. It is not the letter Jude wanted to write: Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. (1-4)
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He wanted to write about their shared faith.
He wanted to focus on the glory and wonder of the gospel and its significance for life.
He wanted to write this joyous, uplifting letter.
Instead he wrote encouraging them to contend for the faith. The word means to strive continuously with those who oppose. The problem was that the enemy was within the camp! He wasn’t calling on the church to engage in a culture war with the pagans around them, but to contend with false teachers within the church. Those who crept in unnoticed (4). Folks Jude describes as ungodly, godless, devoid of the Spirit. These folks had perverted the gospel and used it to justify their sinful, sensual lifestyles as they denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. That’s not the letter you want to write but it is sometimes the letter you have to write. We have been given a great treasure in the Gospel. It has been entrusted to us and we are expected to safeguard it and pass it on to the generation following in its entirety. We are to guard the faith, that body of truth, entrusted to us. What we believe matters and it matters that you understand and hold to the Gospel entrusted to us. In every generation there is the urge, the temptation to “tweak” the Gospel. To make it more patentable to the culture. I’m not saying language does not change. I’m not suggesting that we retain antiquated language but the substance must not change. There are also new applications as issues arise. We do not create new doctrine or new truth but we sometimes have to take the truth we have an address new issues. The apostle Paul never envisioned having to defend the notion that God created man male and female. Luther and Calvin never had to deal with transgendered individuals. Our Baptist forefathers never had to think through what happens when a man presents himself for membership in the church and in the process of interviewing this prospective member you discover that he used to be a she?
The book of Jude is relevant for there are those, in the church, who are calling for an embrace of the whole LGBtQ+ revolution. Those of us who hold to the biblical view of sex and morality are being told we are on the wrong side of history. We are told if the church is to be relevant we must change what we believe.
I pray we heed the words of Jude and contend for the faith. I pray that we learn well the lessons Jude has taught us over the past 6 weeks. This evening we come to the end of our look at this little letter. We come to the doxology found in verses 24 and 25.
Text: Jude 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. Amen.
“Doxology” is a compound word from the Greek - doxa (glory) and logos (word).
So it is a glorious word or word of praise. A related word would be benediction which comes to us from the Latin and means, “an utterance of good wishes” or “a conferring of blessing; a mercy or a benefit.”
Both words are appropriate in describing what Jude is doing at the end of this letter. Having exhorted the faithful to contend for the faith and having warned the ungodly of their sure and certain judgment he closes by focusing on the grace and mercy of God. In these closing verses he commends faithful believers to the mercy and grace of God who alone can ultimately protect and preserve them.
As we work through this statement we are reminded that…
Thesis: Our lives in this fallen, broken world are to be focused on the joy to come and our determination to give God the praise he rightly deserves.
It does us no good to deny that we live in a fallen world. It is not an act of faith to close our eyes to the reality around us and pretend all is well. Our world is changing. This is not the world we grew up in. The changes over the last 10 to 15 years are staggering. Our views, once dominant are now in the minority. I’m not suggesting that our lives are horrible or that every day is a battle. We live in ease compared to our brothers and sisters around the world but views and cherished beliefs are under attack and the attacks are increasingly bold and in some cases, vicious. This final utterance from Jude is important for us to grasp.
This is the truth we must keep ever before us in our struggle.
Look at it again - 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.
There are two things I want to note…
- In the face of opposition and heartache, believers long for the joy of our Lord’s glorious return. (24)
- In light of our glorious future and God’s gracious work in salvation, believers ascribe all glory and honor to God alone. (25)
Conclusion:
Our lives are to be lived for his glory and for his glory alone. So, our prayer in the midst of the struggle is, that of the apostle Paul, “…according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." (Philippians 1:20-21)
My prayer is that we will be found faithful.
My prayer is that we will contend for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints.
My prayer is that God be gloried in us, whether we live or die.
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