Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2994
“Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.” Jude 1:24,25.
PAUL’S writings abound in doxologies. You will find them in different forms scattered throughout all his Epistles. But he is not the only Apostle who thus pauses to magnify the name of God. Here is “Judas, not Iscariot,” but the true-hearted Jude who has been writing an Epistle which seems all ablaze with lightning, it burns so terribly against certain orders of sinners. Almost every word that Jude writes seems to have the roll of thunder in it—he appears to be more like the Haggai of the Old Testament than the Jude of the New. Yet he cannot close his short Epistle until he has included some ascription of praise to God!
Learn from this, dear Friends, that the sin of man, if we are ever called to denounce it, should drive us to adore the goodness and glory of God. Sin defiles the world, so after you have done your best to sweep it out, resolve that, inasmuch as man has dishonored the name of God, you will seek to magnify that name. It is true that you cannot actually redress the wrong that has been done, but, at any rate, if the stream of sin has been increased, you may increase the stream of loyal and reverent praise! Take care that you do. Jude is not satisfied with having rebuked the sons of men for their sin, so he turns round to glorify his God!
Observe that these doxologies, wherever we meet with them, are not all exactly the same. They are presented to the same God and offered in the same spirit, but there are reasons given for the doxology in the one case which are not given
in the other. Our morning text [Sermon No. 1266, Volume 21—PAUL’S DOXOLOGY] told us of what God is able to do and so does this. They both begin with praising God’s ability, but while Paul spoke about the greatness of that ability in what it could do for us, Jude speaks of the greatness of that ability in preserving us from falling and perfecting us so that we may be presented faultless before the Presence of the Glory of God. Let us, in an adoring frame of mind, think over this sublime subject. I. First, LET US ADORE HIM WHO CAN KEEP US FROM FALLING.
I now address myself, of course, only to God’s own people. When shall we ever see a congregation in which it will be needless to make such a remark as that? I cannot call upon some of you to adore God for keeping you from falling, for, alas, you have not yet learned to stand upright! God’s Grace has never yet been accepted by you. You are not on the Rock of Ages—you have not yet set out upon the heavenly pilgrimage. It is a wretched state for you to be in—in which you cannot worship Him whom angels worship. It is a sad state of heart for any man to be in! To be excluded—self-excluded—from the general acclamations of joy in the Presence of God—because you feel no such joy and cannot, therefore, unite in such acclamations!
But to the people of God, I have to say this. Dear Brothers and Sisters, we need keeping, therefore let us adore Him who can keep us! As saved souls, we need keeping from final apostasy. “Oh,” says one, “I thought you taught us that those who are once saved shall never finally apostatize.” I do believe that doctrine and delight to preach it—yet it is true that the saved ones would apostatize—everyone of them—if the Lord did not keep them! There is no stability in any Christian, considered in himself. It is the Grace of God within him that enables him to stand. I believe than the soul of man is immortal, yet not in and of itself, but only by the immortality which God bestows upon it from His essential
immortality. So is it with the new life that is within us. It shall never perish, but it is only eternal because God continues to keep it alive. Your final perseverance is not the result of anything in yourself, but the result of the Grace which God continues to give you and of His eternal purpose which first chose you and of His almighty power which still keeps you alive. Ah, my Brothers and Sisters, the brightest saints on earth would fall into the lowest Hell if God did not keep them from falling! Therefore, praise Him, O you stars that shine in the Church’s sky, for you would go out with a noxious smell, as lamps do for lack of oil, did not the Lord keep your heavenly flame burning! Glory be unto the Preserver of His Church who keeps His loved ones even to the end!
But there are other ways of falling beside falling finally and fatally. Alas, Brothers and Sisters, we are all liable to fall into errors of doctrine. The best-taught man, apart from Divine Guidance, is capable of becoming the greatest fool possible! There is a strange weakness which sometimes comes over noble spirits and which makes them infatuated with an erroneous novelty, though they fancy they have discovered some great Truth of God. Men of enquiring and receptive minds are often decoyed from the old paths—the good old ways—and while they think they are pursuing the Truth, they are being led into damnable error! He only is kept, as to his thoughts and doctrinal views, whom God keeps, for there are errors that would, if it were possible, deceive even the very elect! And there are men and women going about in this world with smooth tongues and plausible arguments, who carry honeyed words upon their lips, though drawn swords are concealed behind their backs! Blessed are they who are preserved from these wolves in sheep’s clothing! Lord, You alone can preserve us from the pernicious errors of the times, for You are “the only wise God, our Savior.”