And we communicate with each other on three different levels. There’s that first level of communication where we pass somebody, it could have been in the foyer this morning or in the hallway at work, and what do you say? You go, hey, how’s it going? And that’s when you normally tell your first lie of the day. And you say, it’s going fine.

And that’s just, everybody does that, right? This is the standard answer. Very rarely will we say, hey, how’s it going? And someone says, do you have about 30 minutes where I can share? But that is the second level of communication. When we do begin to share what we call heart-to-heart talks, where you just get down on a different level and just share what’s going on in your life and things like that. But the third level is, it’s the best level and it’s my favorite. And that’s when we begin to, when we have the opportunity to share spiritual truths with one another. That’s the highest form of communication, in my opinion, when two people can start talking about the Lord and who He is and what He has done for us. So that’s why I’m blessed to be here this morning. You know, speakers will come up and say, well, it’s a real blessing to be here. And I’m sure it is. But I want to tell you why it’s a blessing to be here. Because I get this brief time with you to share spiritual things. And a joke with Chad, when he asked me, I told him, I said, well, sure, I’m not even going to pray about it. Because why pray about the opportunity to share truth with somebody? I mean, God is opening this door and saying, hey, I’m jumping in here. So that’s exactly what I want to do. My, my text for this morning is Jude, verses 24 and 25. And there’s only, it’s the last little letter before the book of Revelation. And it’s only got one chapter in it. And that’s why I say Jude, verse 24 and 25, because there’s only one chapter. So those are the verses that are going to serve as my text this morning for this message. Jude 24 and 25. Let’s read it together.

It’s what we call a doxology. And it says this. 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 now and forevermore. Amen. Let’s pray and ask God’s blessing on this word this morning. Father, you have promised that as your word goes forth, it will not return to you void. It will accomplish your desire and it will achieve the purpose for which you sent it. And we as your children this morning rejoice that you still, even today, send out your word. And it produces fruit. And it brings glory. Glory to your name. So I would pray, Father, that you would just get me out of the way here and speak to your wonderful people here at Providence Fellowship. Speak to their hearts. May our hearts be open and our eyes open to what you have to say to us. And I pray this in Jesus’ name and for your glory. Amen. Amen. Amen. One of my favorite contemporary. Pastors and preachers is John Piper. Back in 2012,

John Piper delivered a message before a large group of pastors and it had this title. Reflections of God’s keeping power through 32 years of ministry. Now you can see his Puritan background by the length of the title of the sermon, right? The Puritans had these unreal lengthy titles for their sermons and their. But John was talking in this one about looking back at his ministry. And by the way, he’s been a Christian like for 68 years, I think now he’s been walking with the Lord. But I listened to that message and you can listen to it, too. You can Google that if you can remember that that lengthy title and listen to that. And it’s a remarkable sermon. It really kind of stopped me in my. Tracks when I listen to it, because in that message, Piper made a couple of astonishing statements. First of all, he said that he was amazed that he’s still a Christian, that he was still in ministry, that he still loves God’s word and has stayed true to his spiritual calling as a husband and father. He was amazed at that. And I’m thinking, well, how can you be amazed at that? But he was truly astonished. And Piper’s words following that remark are true. Truly equal and remarkable in their in their nature. And I think it’s up there. If you can read that, it’s up there on the screen for you because I want to read it. You could just hear his heart and I could even hear the inflection of his voice as he said this. He said, if my faith in Jesus and my eagerness to know him and his word and my thrill of preaching and my love for the church. And my fitness for ministry and for heaven and my sexual conduct and my spiritual marriage commitment. If any of that were decisively dependent on me, I would have ceased to be a Christian long ago. I would have ceased to care about the word of God. I would have given up on the church. I would have abandoned myself to sexual indulgence. And ceased to be married to my wife, Noel. I have no doubt about that at all. If the decisive cause of my faithfulness to Christ in any of those expressions must come from me. It will not come from me. Because it isn’t there.

Therefore, I am amazed that I’m still a Christian.

It’s not as if Piper said, it was not there, but now is. After 68 years of walking with the Lord. That would have made a little bit of sense to me. But he didn’t say that. He made the statement using the present tense of the verb. It is not there.

Let’s go back a couple of hundred years. Rewind to the 1800s. And listen to the words of another one of my favorites. Preacher’s Charles Spurgeon. British guy. Just a wonderful writer and preacher. I read this quote a couple of weeks ago. And promptly entered it into my journal. And now I say that with a caveat. I’m not one of those guys who like every day. Let’s open it up and write about my feelings. And what the day was like. We’re talking like maybe once a month. Or if I run across something I’m reading. And I’m thinking that was really good. I’ll write it down. And so. And so this is what Charles Spurgeon said. He said, Admirable indeed is the long-suffering. And we don’t use that word anymore. It simply means patience. Admirable indeed is the patience of the Savior in bearing with me year after year. Despite my provocations, my rebellions, and my resistance to the Holy Spirit. Wonder of wonders that I am still dwelling in. In the land of mercy.

So these words come from a couple great men of God. These weren’t, you know, youngsters in their walk with the Lord. These were great men of God who both shared a wonder. An astonishment. That, and a great amazement. That they were still followers of Jesus Christ after decades of ministry. But Jude gives us the key. The key in that verse that we read. It’s the keeping power of God.

So you’re reading these quotes in the scripture. It kind of begs the question, what makes me believe that when I wake up tomorrow morning,

I’ll still be a believer? What, or maybe even when I walk out the door today, how long would it, how long would it, would I last if I were, if it was completely dependent on me? How long would you last if it were completely dependent on you?

The Galatians were having a rough go of it.

The church was in turmoil.

The apostle Paul, I think he planted that church. But shortly after he left, false teachers, came in and polluted the faith of the Galatians with a different gospel. It was another gospel. It was a false gospel, which required them to be circumcised and to continue to follow other Mosaic laws in order to be a Christian. And this is the question Paul posed. In Galatians chapter 3, verse 1, he said this, he said, Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this. Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Now, anybody familiar with Paul’s writings? And he wrote like what? 75% of the New Testament? If you read his epistles, you will readily see that his teaching strategy involved asking the reader questions. He asks a lot of questions. But his questions were really interesting. And I’m sure there’s some kind of a grammatical or a poetic or a literary term for this. Maybe you know it. I don’t know it. But his questions are constructed in such a way that the answer is contained within the question. Think about it. Let’s take an example. Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Now, there’s the question.

The answer is right inside the question. And the answer is, you cannot become perfect or mature. That’s actually what he means. By your own human effort. In Romans 6, verse 1, and that’s one of my favorite chapters of the Bible, he asked the question. He said, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, so that grace may abound?

And of course, he answers, by all means, no. But in that question, there’s the question, and the answer is in the question. You should not continue to sin and expect for grace to abound. So the answer was in the question. So if I can’t become perfect or mature by my own human effort, if I can’t even remain in the faith that God has given me without help, how am I going to make it?

And as a follower of Jesus, how can we be certain again as we leave here today or wake up in the morning by this time or by this time next year, for that matter, that we will still be a follower of Jesus? How can you be sure of that?

You’re going to remain a follower of Jesus. You are going to make it. And you are going to, you are going to finish your journey

because God is keeping you.

God is keeping you. Now looking back at the text that we looked at, Jude 24 and 25, God is keeping you. How? Well, he’s keeping you by his majesty, his glory. He’s keeping you by his dominion. He is keeping you by his authority. And you’re going to, you’re going to remain a follower of Jesus. You’re going to finish the course because we have this promise. And we find it in the book of Philippians, chapter 1, verse 6. Paul writes this, and I am sure of this. Isn’t that great that he prefaced his statement with that? He said, look, I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will, not may, not might, if you behave yourself, he will carry it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Now what’s the day of Jesus Christ? Believe it or not, it was tucked away in one of the songs we just sang. No power of hell, no scheme of man will ever pluck me from his hand till he returns or takes me home. Amen. The day of Jesus Christ is one of two dates, I mean, it’ll be a date. We’ll probably be able to mark it. It is when he returns because he’ll return on some day and we’ll look and say, hey, it was December 14th, 2020. He came back. That’s the day of Jesus Christ. Or the other date is the day he calls you home. Then his work is finished and you’re perfected in him. And in the second chapter of Philippians, he goes on to that. With more of that idea, he says, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, verse 13, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. You know, we have this saying, this mind that desires to obey God. Guess what? Where did that come from? God is at work within you both to will. He gives you the desire to obey him, the desire, the longing for him, the thirst to walk in righteousness and holiness. He gives you, oh God, I want that. I don’t want that old life anymore. I want to walk in your ways. Where did that come from? Did that come from you? Heaven’s not. No, it came from God working within you, creating a will and a desire. And he says, I will not only create the will, but I will also create the work in you. You will do the works because I’m actually doing them. I don’t know if I can remember this, but Piper gave another quote, and this isn’t written down, by the way, back there.

He said something like this. He said, God must, decisively create and bring to completion any inclination I have to believe or obey.

God must begin it. He must put it in my heart and he has to carry it out because it’s not there within me.

So what is our part in this? Do we have a, do we, you know, we want to do something. You know, I can’t just sit there, you know. What is, okay, so if you want to do something, do this.

Believe in and agree with what God has said within the pages of Scripture about himself, about who he says he is, and about who he says you are. You want to do something? Believe that. Believe that, no matter, regardless of your mood, your feeling, your emotions, which, by the way, could all be driven by what you ate for dinner last night. Right? Or what other people say to you. We sometimes are our own worst enemies. We hurt one another. But all we need to do to become part of this remarkable, glorious work of God in our lives is to believe in and agree with what he says about himself in the Scripture and what he says about you. John Calvin puts it much more eloquently as he always does. I ran across this quote just yesterday. So it’s not going to be displayed again. Missing some slides here. Don’t blame your guy back here. He’s doing great. This is what Calvin wrote in that, context. He said, let us derive greater contentment from Christ’s testimony about us rather than from the vain estimations of our own flesh. What does Christ say about who I am? Not how I feel, not what’s going on. What does the Lord say about who he is, what he has done, and who I am as a result of that? That’s what you want to grasp a hold of. That’s the estimations that John Calvin said for us to cling to. So you’re going to wake up tomorrow a follower of Jesus, and the next day, and the day after that, because he is the one who is keeping you. And he has promised that he will, God’s a finisher, isn’t he? He finishes what he began, and we’re going to go through hills, and valleys, and rough patches, and we’re going to, we’re going to question, don’t feel bad about this, you’re going to question, am I really called to be your child? Am I? There’s no evidence. Today, in my life, I am no different from the unbeliever sitting in the next cubicle.

God has promised, he has called you to faith in Christ, and those he calls, he justifies, and he glorifies, and he keeps them, because it’s what he says that counts, not what we say. All we can do is encourage you, by what he said. You’re not encouraged at all, Bob. I didn’t say anything that’s encouraging. All I’m doing is saying, well, here’s what the scriptures say, here’s what the Lord has said to us as his children, concerning why we’re going to persevere, why we’re going to make it to the end. I’m going to close this morning by reading Psalm 121 to you. Remarkable psalm about, you can turn there if you want, or read it on the screen. It’s a remarkable song about God keeping his people.

I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your life. He will keep your life. Lord, we’ll keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth

and forevermore. Amen. Let’s pray. Father, we delight in what you have promised

concerning that you will keep us, Lord. Lord, we can rest today, Father.

Jesus, you said, come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden. I will give you rest. And many of us are laboring, Lord, under the belief that we can do something to either obtain or maintain

a healthy relationship with you. It is not there, Lord. But we know through your majesty, glory, dominion, and authority exercising those qualities and characteristics in us, we will make it. And we will one day see you face to face and behold your glory. And it doesn’t yet appear what we’ll be like, but we know that we’ll be like you.

And what a great and glorious day that will be when our race is finished and we see you face to face. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen. Thank you.