Benediction

My daughter asked me to take a picture of you, and so I will.

Well, maybe I'll do a video.

Yeah.

Oh, there you go.

Okay, that's that's inappropriate.

Let's keep going.

Let's look in our Bibles to Jude.

There's only one chapter, verses 24 and 25.

One of the great privileges of pastoral ministry is the opportunity to sit with people in key moments of their lives.

I count it as a real privilege and honor to have done so with so many of you.

Particularly in uh moments after loved ones have died, there's really not much to say.

Uh this is not a funeral message, stay with me.

There's really not much to say.

And so you don't want to cheapen the sorrow with cheap words.

But at some stage, if the funeral, if there is a funeral uh planned, there's an opportunity to think through what might be said at the funeral.

And I have watched over many years just the anxiety within uh uh those who have uh whose loved ones have gone on uh to glory um experience as they try to think about how to say everything about their mom or dad or brother or child in the few moments that they have.

And and what I always say is don't try to do that, because it's impossible.

Instead, say what the Lord gives you to say and be content with that.

And so, in a similar way, how how can you possibly summarize 15 years?

Well, you can't.

So instead, I'm going to say what the Lord has given me to say through familiar words that we've uh heard many, many times in Jude.

What would the message be that I want you to know today?

The message is to trust the Lord.

Now, what you won't hear in this sermon is a sermon about me leaving.

This sermon ain't about me or you.

We're just gonna talk about Jesus again, just like we've always done.

Okay, Jude 24 and 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.

And all God's people said, Amen.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, this your holy word, we open today.

Like children, we don't know how to go out or come back in again, and so we need you to make it plain for us.

Show us our sin, yes, and show us our Savior.

And we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

The story is told about the journey a college-age student made with his father, a four-hour drive north, the few days before his freshman year began.

The journey started, and it was all chatter from the young man, excitement about this, looking forward to that.

What are we gonna do about this?

And then as the miles grew on of the story goes, he said, I got less and less chattery.

And as we got closer to the college where I would attend, I got very quiet indeed.

And my father, recognizing the reality of what was said again, slowed and pulled the car over to the side of the road and turned to me and said, My son, I don't know whether you'll do well or poorly, but you need to know you are my son.

And you can always come home.

Those words strengthened him for the remainder of the travel, buoyed him throughout his career in college, served him throughout the remainder of his father's life, and now come to us today.

How are we to remember what we have learned?

What would the father say to us?

What is home?

What's the home that we can come home to?

It is the word of God.

And this portion of the word of God, God tells his people, trust me, trust the Lord.

Why?

Why should we trust the Lord?

Because he will keep you in the present, and he will present you in the future.

That's where we're headed today.

He will keep you in the present, and he will present you in the future.

First, what does it mean to that he will keep you in the present?

First, we need to understand our call and his promise.

Our call is that we keep ourselves in him.

Now, before any legalistic antennas go up, just go with me.

Why would that that language of keeping be necessary?

Because he's told the readers in verse 21 that they are to keep themselves in the love of God.

Now, I know that these two verses are familiar words to you.

I've read them to you many, many, many, many times in form of a benediction.

But we need to understand the broader context of the letter of the book of Jude.

Jude is writing to a people warning them about the infiltration of immoral people into the church.

And their ways will corrupt your ways, he says.

In fact, he says it very strongly in verse 4 for certain people who 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.

And for the next however many verses, he expounds upon what it looks like for them to creep in and to affect the morality in the church.

And he says, You must, verse 21, keep yourself in the love of God.

How are we to keep ourselves in the love of God?

He tells us in the preceding verse to build yourselves up in your most holy faith and to pray in the Holy Spirit.

Now I say before our legalistic antennas go up, we need to see that the Word of God says to us, keep yourselves in the love of God.

It's not enough to say, I really want to be holy, and then kind of do whatever we want.

It'd be akin to say, I really want to be fit, but I'm just gonna eat chicken pot pie every meal without regard for the calorie, caloric intake, and lay around all day long.

He says, No, you have to keep yourself in the faith.

That means you have to exercise your faith.

You have to read the word, you have to study the word, you have to lay it up in your heart and then practice it in your life.

It's a keeping yourself.

When I was younger, I found an oyster.

And once I was able to crack it open, there inside of it was a perfectly rounded black pearl.

About, well, about that big.

And you can just imagine the pirate-like delight of a young boy discovering a pearl in an oyster.

And my romantic young boy self said, I'm gonna keep this for my future wife and give to her.

And so when it came time to marry Kim, I asked my mom for the pearl.

You know why?

Because I couldn't keep it.

But she kept it.

That's what God's promise is in the midst of our call.

He says, keep yourself just as clearly as day, keep yourself in the love of God, verse 21.

And then he says, verse 24, now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling.

In fact, he's already said it is the Lord who keeps us in verse 1.

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.

What is Jude saying?

He's saying, You are kept, keep yourself, and when you can't keep yourself, the Lord will keep you.

Where are you tempted to let go?

The culture puts all kinds of challenges on you who are uh working in the business world and says you have to believe this, you have to embrace this, or you won't get promotion.

You won't become partner.

If you've got to embrace these views, or are you tempted to let go?

He will keep you.

Are you tempted to let go because you're just so doggone tired of fighting the same sin battle every day?

Are you tempted to let go?

That he will keep you.

What's the assurance that this church will keep going?

Well, it's never been built off a person or a people.

Except for the person of Christ.

He will keep us when we're tempted to let go, we need to remember it is he who keeps us.

That is the promise.

He will keep us in the present.

But not only will he keep us in the present, he will then present you in the future.

What does that mean?

Look again at verse 24.

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.

Okay, there's a lot going on right there.

Jude is just sort of overflowing with doxological praise.

He says, He's going to present us, to whom will he present?

To the only God, our Savior.

And what will our presentation be like?

It will be blameless.

Look right here in verse 24.

And to present you blameless.

That means you will be without sin or stain of sin.

Now I need to confess something.

I've confessed this before to you.

I'm a spiller when I eat.

It is almost like salad dressing is magnetically drawn to my shirts.

And especially new ones.

Right, Kim?

I can't tell you the number of times I bought a shirt, and within 48 hours, I've got a stain on it.

And some stains come out, you know.

And some stains mostly come out.

You know what I mean?

The kind of stains that hang around just a little bit, that if you kind of get close enough, you say, there's something right there.

Well, I've discovered a trick that I'm going to share with you.

That when I wear a shirt, I mean, I as a spiller, I have to embrace this, that I have shirts that have stains on them.

And so I've I've discovered a trick to wearing a shirt that has been laundered but still bears the resemblance of a stain.

I act surprised when someone points it out.

I say, oh, how about that?

It sure is.

That he will thoroughly wash us and present us before his majesty with the glory robed of Jesus Christ.

You know the code illustration.

We've told it many times, but we'll say it again.

This isn't what happened at the crucifixion.

God didn't take Jesus' code of righteousness and put it over us so that we have a coat of sinfulness and a code of righteousness.

No, he took our code of sinfulness and he put it on his son Jesus, and he took Jesus' code of righteousness and he put it on us so that every time he sees us, who does he see?

Jesus.

Without sin or stain of sin.

And one day he will present us before the presence of his glory.

Blameless.

But not only blameless, he says, with great joy.

It's my favorite part of the benediction.

How are we joyful?

Well, because we're free from sin's penalty.

Because we recognize what Christ did is that he gave his only life for our son, for us.

And so that our sins were put on him and his righteousness was put on us so that he paid the penalty for our sin, so that we are given great joy.

Actually, the ESV Study Bible gets it right in the little footnotes if you've got one of those on your phone or in your lap, the hard copy.

It says exuberance.

It's celebration, folks.

It's Nehemiah 12, the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.

It's our joy that we are free from the penalty of sin.

But is it only our joy?

This past week was uh we got to watch my son's away football game.

And uh the announcer at the football game was probably my favorite I've ever heard.

His exuberance for first downs, touchdowns, and turnovers was just simply unmatched over the PA system.

But my favorite was when the flag and whistle would be thrown and blown, with a slow country draw and a strong sense of disappointment in the home team, he would press the PA button and say flags and whistles, flags and whistles.

I mean, you could almost see him shaking his head in the press box.

Flags and whistles, flags and whistles.

Is that what's happening before the throne room of God when he sees us sin?

Our sin certainly has caused a flag and a whistle.

There's penalty for the sin, but is he disappointingly shaking his head in heaven saying, flags and whistles?

No.

This joy isn't just our joy, it's his joy.

That's what I love about this text is that it's so profoundly, intentionally vague.

No, it's not vague, the scriptures are clear, but he doesn't tell us explicitly whose joy.

You know why?

Because it's both his joy and our joy, present you before the presence of his glory with great joy.

That Jesus Christ endured the cross for the joy that was set before him, to pursue a people that were not his, to reclaim them for himself, so that one day he could celebrate over them forever in heaven.

Do you know your Father, the Son, and the Spirit smile on you like that?

Do you know they celebrate over you like that with joy?

To what end?

For worship.

That's what the text goes on to say.

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.

I I heard this sermon, oh, I didn't hear this sermon.

I heard a sermon on this passage a number of years ago.

And when I heard the sermon, uh, when I heard that uh preacher give this sermon, I thought, whenever it is the Lord calls me away from Kabul Park, either through retirement or otherwise, and this was a long time ago, I want to preach the last sermon on this passage.

And as the preacher expounded this passage, my favorite part about his sermon, and I even tried to find it this week, but I couldn't find it.

My favorite part about this, the his sermon this week is that he says in verse 25, to the only God, he says, In my church tradition, we sing a hymn that says, God is God all by himself.

That's what Jude is saying.

God is God all by himself.

And he doesn't need us to give him this glory so that he has it.

He's already got it.

It's just ours to acknowledge it.

You see.

And what are we acknowledging?

We're acknowledging glory that all the earth bows down to God, that he is above all things, majesty, that he is holy and majestic.

I know you're not supposed to define a word with a word, but I'm going to do it anyways.

It's my last sermon.

He's got dominion, it's rule over everything.

He's got authority that is all things, all things are made by him, all things are made for him, and to whom all knee, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, even creation itself.

Remember, Jesus promised that.

If you silence the kids, even the stones will cry out.

So how are we going to be presented to God like that?

Blameless?

With great joy for worship.

It says, through Jesus Christ.

We're presented through Jesus Christ and no one else.

And how long will our worship last?

As long as his glory, majesty, dominion, and authority have lasted, it says, before all time and now and forever.

And then that last word says, Let it be so.

Trust him, Cohoba Park.

He will keep you in the present.

He will present you in the future.

You know how I know?

This letter was written by a guy named Jude.

The uh his actual name in Greek is Judas.

This is Judas.

A servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James.

Okay, so we know that he's serving Christ and he's a brother to James.

You know who else is his brother?

Some of you will know.

What was it?

Yeah, you're right.

Jesus.

This is Jesus' brother.

Joseph and Mary had other kids.

Here's one of them.

How do I know?

Mark 13.

Matthew 13, Mark 6.

The Bible tells us so.

So the longer you're around him, the more you trust in him, the more you see his love overflow for you.

How could a sibling relationship go to worship?

I mean, that's what he says.

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, and then by the end of the letter, 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.

How does that happen?

Only through the work of the Savior.

Trust him.

He will keep you in the present, he will present you in the future, and he will carry you all the way home.

So let's pray.

And you have ordained since the foundation of the world to send your only Son, Jesus Christ, the propitiation for our sins, so that we might be somebody in you forever.

You've accomplished it by your Holy Spirit.

You will keep us in the present, you will present us in the future.

Enable our trust in you, keep our eyes on you, and in your name, Jesus, we pray.

Amen.