Before we consider this together, let's ask God for his help and blessing. Our wise God, we pray for thy spirit to work this morning again, giving us wisdom in speaking, wisdom in listening and understanding, and wisdom as we go out into the rest of this week and next week and beyond. Lord, give us that true wisdom that comes from knowing thee, fearing thee, loving thee. Wisdom that's only worked by thy spirit and yet wisdom that can preserve and protect through all of life and all the ups and downs and bring us to that place of eternal joy. Lord, please bless our time together this morning. but use thy word to work in a mighty way. And we pray that that would especially be with all here as they work towards the end of the semester and the deadlines come quickly and the pressure mounts. Lord, may stress not take away our dependence on thee, our reliance, our joy, even in what thou canst do as our God. But may it draw us closer to thee, more dependent prayer. Please bless the teaching and the learning that's happened in this past semester as well, and make it useful, Lord, to many years of service. We thank Thee for each of the teachers and professors and support staff, each of the students here, and ask Thy benediction on each one. We pray this morning also again for Kathy Spohns as she mourns the loss of her husband, Jim. Lord, we are so thankful for Thy work in his life and granting him such peace in these last days. And may that also be a testimony of thy goodness. And may it even reach us, even as we know them a little bit from the food pantry. Lord, we look to thee this morning. Please hear our prayer for Jesus' sake. Amen. As you approach the end of another school year, it brings a certain amount of reflection, looking back, a certain amount of thanks already as you look back to what God's granted you to do. And that sense of looking back is a regular thing. We do this through our birthdays, we do it through celebrations, we do it at ends of things, we do it at the end of worship. After every service, we look back with doxology, we thank God for what he's given to us again, and we look for his benediction. And as you think about doing it every church service, it can sometimes feel routine. And the doxologies just come easily and without thought even. But I want to stop this morning and focus on Jude's doxology or benediction however you want to look at it and and just focus on this together with you so that as you come to the end of another year we would be Living thinking with much increased appreciation and thanksgiving and praise So I want to focus just on the last two verses of Jude under the heading to God be the glory and we see immediately it's a to God be the glory for his powerful preservation. And this is in the context, obviously, of Jude's entire letter. And his concern in writing the letter was, he's writing to those who are called, those who are called to be a part, sanctified. He appeals to them in verse 3 that they would give all diligence to contending for the faith, or Jude's giving all diligence to writing to them, and he's exhorting them to contend earnestly for the faith. Because, as verse four says, there's certain men crept in unawares, and they need to stand against the perversion of the gospel and those who are going to deny Christ. And he warns them throughout this letter of serious consequence. Verse five, he uses the example of The people being saved from Egypt, Egypt being destroyed. Verse 7, Sodom and Gomorrah. Verse 8, he warns them of those who have dreamt. Those who've relied on dreams and subjective experiences instead of truth. Verse 12, he's warning them of those who come with destructive and empty promises. Clouds, they're like clouds without water. They promise one thing, but they don't deliver. Verse 15, he's warning them of judgment because of the deeds of ungodliness. Verse 17, where we started to read, he calls them to remembrance. Remember, in light of all this flood of wrong and iniquity and perversion that's going to come against you, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. You must remember the word, the gospel. And then in verse 20, he directs their focus. But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And it's as if he has his four instructions there. Build yourselves up. Pray in the Holy Ghost. Keep yourselves in the love of God. Look for the mercy. in spite of all that filth that's going to come against you. Keep yourselves. Build yourselves up. And it's a hostile world in Jude's day. And you look, you know, just out into culture, the news today, and you see that flood of iniquity building, and it's just getting bigger and bigger. And you as well, as you end your studies here, called to these same four things. Build yourselves up, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. And if you think about this past year, maybe your past four years here, in a sense you've been called apart to study as well. You've been set apart for these studies. And through this last year, you've prepared for ministry, you've read the books, you've worked through the midterms, you're facing exams, papers, stress. I don't know about you, but as you take this flood of information from four years, and you want to remember it all, and you want to be true to it all, But there's always this question, will I remember everything that I need to remember? Will I understand the perversions of the gospel when they creep in? Will I be able to warn against them? Will my mind be such a filter that it will say, no, that's wrong, I have to stop here, I have to understand. Or will I not remember what I learned? And will I fall into error, even unknowingly? And if you think about everything you've taken in, and maybe your future possibilities, future place of service even, how will you do there? Will you be prepared for that? Will you have the spiritual courage to face even these problems you haven't thought about or studied for four years in seminary? Because you're going to be faced with something new that you've never thought of. Will you be so built up in your most holy faith that you'll be able to stand strong when you face the new thing as well? And that really focuses or brings the need for Jude's doxology. Because the people he's writing to are facing the same thing. This is not the letter that he wanted to write to them. He wanted to write to them of the gospel, the truth. And yet, what's coming is, in a sense, so scary. He feels this need to write to them and warn them. I don't know about you, but sometimes it's amazing that God's kept us up to this very point. He's preserved, he's allowed you to maybe be a pastor, a student for sure. He's maybe brought you from the world of darkness into the light. You're a Christian, believing the word. And yet, do you ever fear? Fear falling, fear stumbling, fear not completing the race, You think of everything that Satan wants to do and destroy, and it really comes down to, you know he wants to ruin the kingdom. And I fear Satan's lies sometimes. You look at the hostility of the world, and you might fear the world's attacks. You might fear the oppression of men. And yet, if we look at ourselves, if I look at myself, I think what I fear most is losing love. Love for God, love for the Word, love for His church. A cold soul. And it might be because of tiredness. It might be because of the busyness. It might be because of my own pride. My own selfishness. But if we look inside, we realize if it's up to ourselves, we wouldn't persevere. Because as James says, in many things we offend, we all stumble. And Jude knows this as well, and hence this letter. But he doesn't end there. You see, he's real with all these things that are flooding in. But he's going to point them, he's going to encourage them, and he's going to say, here's your focus. Here's your focus. Verse 24, 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, to him be the glory. He's praising God for that powerful preservation because he knows it's through the Holy Ghost. The faith of those he's writing to is going to be preserved, and it's going to be preserved because God is able to preserve it. He alone has the ability to preserve it. He has the ability, yes, to preserve his church in the broad, big-picture sense, but he has the ability to preserve every single one within that church as well. And so this ability is not just a hidden ability. It's not just an ability for a reserved few who have, as it were, risen to the top of those saints throughout history. No, but he's writing to these people, spread, he's saying, unto him that is able to keep you from falling. God is able to keep you and me from falling. In spite of our tendencies to wander and slip and wonder and fall, He's able to keep you, as it were, from going off the deep end. You can think of it as God being the guardrails. You know, there's the narrow path of life, and it goes through the valleys, and it goes up the mountains, and it goes around the corners. But He's the guardrails. He will keep you from falling. He will guard you from sinning. And it's not only that. It's not that He's just going to keep you on this path. He can make you be sure-footed. He can guide every step so that every step is exactly in the place where He wants it. And you run the marathon of life. You run the marathon of ministry. You know, there's others who may fall away. But he's able to keep you from falling. And he deserves our praise for that preserving power. Because it's not just through one hard time. It's not just through one difficult decision. It's not just through one hard month. No, he's able to preserve you until the day that he returns. And he's going to present you. You know, at the end of the Old Testament, Malachi asked this question, said, who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appears? The human answer, as long as we look to ourselves, is nobody can stand when he appears. But as Jude states it, at the last and great day, even those who've gone through these ups and downs, these valleys and mountains and curves, even though they face these struggles and the challenges, the church as it's presented before God, before the presence of His glory, before His throne, It will be presented. And then even the most weak one and even the one who has stumbled and is faint hearted and who has wondered if they will persevere will stand there that day. Even those who've sinned. Even those who feared. You go through Hebrews 11 and all those who have been seen to be faithful, and we can, yes, speak of Gideon and Samson and Jephthah and Samuel and David and Solomon, and we can add Manasseh and so many others. They will be so preserved that they will stand there that day and be presented because God's will, God will cause it to be so. His redemptive power will work so that they will stand before His glory. And you understand very well that this is secured only through the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul writes to the Colossians, He reconciled you in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. He's going to present you this way. He will present you faultless, faultless, without spot, without wrinkle, without blemish. Because of Christ's pure sacrificial death, the church is, yes, forgiven and it's washed, but it's preserved so that the day of His return it will be presented and it will be presented as the most beautiful bride. You take then what Jude is writing, and he's writing to those who might struggle. He's taking those who struggle with all the things that are coming against them, and yet he warns and encourages, and says, look to Him who can present you faultless. Take the warnings, and to remember, He can present you faultless, blameless. He takes those who struggle with love of God and he presents them perfect. He takes those surrounded by false teachers and presents them faultless, without error. And does he just say, here's another one. Here's another one not guilty, blameless, perfect. Yes, he says that. But you see, it's not in a sterile way. It's not an unemotional way. No, he comes and he presents as it were his bride. And he doesn't just say, this is my bride. No, he comes and he presents them faultless with exceeding joy. Those who've struggled Here's my bride, the most beautiful bride, a faultless bride. Exuberant joy, exultation. You can imagine bubbling joy from God's redemptive work. Like John the Baptist leaping in the womb for that redemptive joy. You see, this is how God's people are going to be presented that day. Here's another, here's another, here's another. And it gives him joy to present him as such. Perfect. Faultless. And so if you ever feel like you have to contend for the faith, if you ever feel it's hard work, if you fear you're not going to be able to keep on, you struggle to keep yourselves in the love of God, you waver in looking for mercy, if you're like those amateur runners who decide to run a marathon, and then collapse along the way, unable to go on. And you worry you're going to be like them. Or maybe you worry you'll make it to the finish line, but it'll be on your hands and knees and you'll hardly be able to breathe. No, you can take Jude's doxology and pray it. Now unto him that is able to keep me from falling and to present me faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Be my help. And then, oh, to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it. Seal it. Seal it for the courts above. And I pray this will be true for you as a group, true for the graduates here. It's now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and present you faultless and seal you for the courts above. And as Jude sums up his letter, then he's motivating them to this glory, to this praise, but he highlights it's God's glory and it's for his eternal greatness that we keep glorying in him. Verse 25, to the only wise God, our savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. You see, as you rely on God for that preserving power, you are glorifying Him for His wisdom. It's His wisdom that makes Him praiseworthy. It's His wisdom that will keep you from the false teachers. It's His wisdom that will guard you and guide you, because He doesn't keep this wisdom to Himself. No, He sends it, He shares it, He gives to those who ask. He gives the spirit of wisdom and knowledge, even in the acts. of service and study and pastoring and preaching. That's why Paul can say to the Corinthians, what I what I said to you is not my words. But it was in demonstration of the spirit that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. We give God glory for his wisdom and we give him glory also as our savior. And referring to the Savior, we often mean Jesus Christ. And that's true. There's a number of manuscript issues in regards to this phrase in Jude here. But it's not the only place scripture says God is our Savior. We can think of it as his covenant redeeming arm. It's that saving arm that saved his people. It's that arm that brought them out of Egypt. They didn't save themselves. He pulled them out. He got them through the river. He led them through the wilderness. He brought them into the promised land. They didn't pull themselves out. They didn't work hard enough to get spiritually ahead. They didn't love Him first. They weren't so good that they preserved themselves through all those years. No, He's their Savior. And that's not just true of a group in history. That's not just true of the people that Jude's referring to in the past. No, He is our Savior. Even those who stumble are saved by Him. Those who will be presented faultless are saved by Him. You cannot be preserved outside of Him. And you see then it's Christ. It is Christ. It's through His mediatorial work. And then it's not you as the church or the pastor or the brightest student here who's going to be the savior of the people. The church is but the demonstration of the effectiveness of his gospel, and it's the messenger of his gospel to others. And the church then points to, yes, not itself or its own ideas, but it points to him who can preserve. You know, Jude said the false teacher is boasted of their special knowledge. But he's not going to boast in his special knowledge. He's going to boast in his Savior. It's as if he's saying, I'm going to remember I'm an ambassador of the king. I'm not an ambassador of myself. Much of the world celebrated the queen of England. This week, 90th birthday, remarkable rain. And there's a lot of applauding. Here's the king. not just of one nation, not just of an empire, but here's the king of the world through all time. He deserves not just an applause at a birthday. No, he deserves praise every single day. Every day you need to look to him. And Jude tells us why. Specifically, it's the glory and majesty, dominion and power that the king deserves. All the glory, because His is the glory. All the divine attributes come together in this glory that shines forth from the King. Here's His majesty. His is the kingly majesty, the throne, the right to rule. His is the dominion, the power in a physical sense. His is the kingly power in the authoritative sense. To Him be all the glory. He deserves the praise. When you bow before that power and dominion and majesty and glory, He's not just the King anymore, He's the King of Kings. He's the Lord of Lords. The Lord of Hosts is His name. He comes with all the resources and all the authority and all the power. And He uses this, yes, even to preserve and keep those who look to Him. Those who might feel they're stumbling along the way and look. Yes, He uses all His resources to preserve them. And everything we are and everything we have and everything we've been given and every opportunity is from Him. The majesty is His. The ruling is His. The dominion is His. He's in complete control of all things. We may wonder at the state of the world, but we have no right to despair. When you see Him as the King of glory, All glory, all majesty, all dominion, all power. You will not be led astray. Keep yourselves in the love of God. Look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Build yourselves up. It's not because it's in you, it's because it's his. We need to stay focused on him. And when you see Him then as the King of all glory and majesty and dominion and power, the appeal of all the others disappears, and the lies and the half-truths will not grab your mind, but you'll know Him as God. And then all the praise and glory will be to this God, and all the majesty and respect will be to this God. and all the obedience and delight will be in this God. Now and ever. Now and ever. All the time. From the very beginning to this present age, whatever your futures hold, in every circumstance, at the end of every semester, after every project, every move, today, next month, all the days and years ahead. He is the King, all glorious. Do we rejoice in him as such? You know, we need to be responsible and we need to study. We need to lead meetings. We need to pastor people. And in a sense, he is granted degree of rule over part of his church. But we can never exalt ourselves to such a point that we think this is my church, my rule, my place, my throne. We're called to be ambassadors of this king, not representing ourselves. Everything we do then is a witness of him. And it ought to be to this witness, to God be the glory. He deserves the praise, not us. We work for his kingdom, not our own. And that's why Jude says you can go out and you can have compassion on some, making a distinction and saving others with fear, pulling them, as it were, straight from the fire. Because we realize our own humanness. We're no different. And yet we point to Him, and we point to Him, and we point to Him, and we say, He is able to keep you from falling. He is the wise God. He is the Savior. He rules. And then, you know, as you go out from this semester, as you go into your first pastorates, Lord willing, as you continue teaching, continue working on behalf of the seminary. As others see you, they shouldn't see just a person. They should see the glory, the brightness, the worthiness of the King for whom you work. If it was not for his grace, If it was not for his preserving power, all the studying and all the practice and all the activity would not keep us from falling. And so we praise him and we point to him for his continued hand in our lives and the lives of all his children. So I should conclude the chapels this year, your semester, your time at PRTS. As you step out into ministry, as you serve as God's ambassador to struggling saints, as you pray for yourself, that you would persevere without stumbling. It's on to Him. To God be the glory. Let's pray. Lord, we come to Thee as the only one who can keep us from falling, as the only one who can present us faultless before the presence of thy glory with exceeding joy. Lord, we look to Thee and we give Thee praise. And we say to Thee, be all glory and majesty, dominion, and power today, next week, and ever. Lord, guide each one here. Preserve us. May none of the graduates of the past or of this year or of the years to come fall away. But Lord, preserve us all and use us to thy honor and glory. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.