Hey Jude

[0:00] So this morning, I want to start off in a way that makes me itchy inside, makes me cringe. As an introvert, I don't like that I'm about to do this, but let's start off interactively.

[0:12] I know. Some of us, some of the, I saw some in the, some of us cringe, some of us like, yeah. All right. But I think I want to talk about something we all like talking about. At the very least, I really like talking about eating out.

[0:26] Do that. Okay. The introverts maybe are a little more. Okay. What are some of our favorite places to eat? Do we have any?

[0:36] What was that? Plaza. Good one. Yes. Yes. Those are good. Do we have any other, any other favorites? Dave's Hot Chicken.

[0:47] Freddy's. Freddy's. All right. Yes. Good. Some of our, my favorites, my wife and my family's favorites, Granite City. Any, any, any Granite Cityites out there?

[0:58] Leela Tai. That's a, that's a good one. I like Famous Dave's. I might be the only one in my family that does, but that's, anyway, these are some of our favorite things. And after going out to eat, after having a big meal, sitting there, conversation is winding down, wrapping up.

[1:16] The waiter comes, asks one last question while they maybe even have the check or now the tablet in their hands. Before they hand you that check, what's the thing that they ask? Did you save any room for dessert?

[1:28] Yes. My wife and I were childless for, for this last week. We went out to eat more than we should have. And I was like counting, like, yes, you've asked it. You've asked it. That is the question that they universally asked.

[1:40] That's the, you ready for the check without having to say that anybody save any room for dessert? Now, unless we are celebrating, the Thompsons are celebrating anything, we usually decline, we pay and we leave.

[1:52] Today, though, I'm here to say, save room for dessert. And with that, all the kids have tuned in. They've checked in. I got an amen, I think, from Alice over here.

[2:04] I don't know. Anyway, save room for dessert. We've gotten through the meat and the potatoes of Jude. Maybe some bitter vegetables of some kind here or there.

[2:15] Some of the hard stuff, the bread and the butter, the meat and the potatoes. But now we can enjoy this sweet treat. I mentioned in small group a few weeks ago, it was a lesser tended, a small group.

[2:28] It must have been a busy night. The difference between a benediction and a doxology. Does anybody that wasn't there know the difference between a benediction and a doxology? I didn't either.

[2:41] They're often words used interchangeably, but they're not meant to be. Often they are, though. The difference is the direction to which you are speaking. A benediction is like a blessing, a blessing to the people.

[2:53] A doxology is a praise. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Make sense? With those definitions in mind, this passage is actually a doxology.

[3:04] It's a very well-known doxology. And what I like about looking at it today is that this doxology was written specifically to end the book of Jude.

[3:16] When we usually hear it, it's a parting word of praise after a scripture from somewhere else about something else. And those are all good and right uses of that doxology.

[3:27] But today's passage was handcrafted by God to end this series. It's a beautiful two-sentence, two-verse gospel summary, a line of praise to our God.

[3:38] It's a declaration of God's power to protect and preserve his people and a praise of his eternal greatness. Jude's doxology is like dessert. It's the icing on the cake.

[3:49] And it's easy to point at an epistle, or sorry, it's easy at this point in an epistle to say, all right, I got the gist. The author's wrapping things up, yada, yada, yada. And we're done.

[4:01] Maybe to put things in a Midwestern or spin, it's at this point that your company slaps their knees, say, well, I should head out. And they're about to go.

[4:12] But in true Midwestern reform, there's still plenty of good conversation left to be had. With that, I'm going to have Jeremy come up and actually read our text so we know what it is we're talking about.

[4:24] All right. This is Jude 24 and 25. Thank you, Jeremy.

[4:58] With that, will you guys pray with me? God, I thank you for the opportunity to look at this text, this icing on the cake, this praise portion.

[5:09] I pray that it inspires us to worship today and when we look at it and at other times. Clear my mind. Help me keep me from wrong, saying things wrong.

[5:24] Use me as you see fit. In your name we pray. Amen. Some translations start this doxology off with, now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling.

[5:34] Other translations say, but to him who is able to keep you. Either way, it's a stark transition. It's used to contrast from the above.

[5:45] It's a pivot point. You could almost envision a curtain dropping and a scene change if you were someone that's into musicals or plays. Or if you were a reader, maybe there'd be a new chapter, a little squiggly line that they sometimes do in the fancy books, between thoughts and ideas.

[6:00] The you is inferior. It's spoken as someone with authority to someone that maybe doesn't have an authority. It's not like a derogatory, but it's someone with authority telling his people something important.

[6:16] This you would also be helpful to contrast between them that he spoke about earlier. It's meant to say you should be different from them. There is them, and then there is you.

[6:28] And we can see that earlier in Jude, in Jude verse 8, it says, In like manner, these people also rely on their dreams, defiling the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.

[6:44] And then in 10, it's these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.

[6:55] He uses these people so often. There's these people, but then there's you. And he doesn't always contrast them back to back, but I like verse 4 and 5.

[7:07] He does. 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.

[7:18] And then it goes on in verse 5, But I want you, or I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt afterwards, destroys those who did not believe.

[7:31] So there's a contrast between these people and then there's you. There's a certain people over here stumbling, but to him who is able to keep you from stumbling. But to him who is able to keep you from becoming them.

[7:45] But to him who is able to keep you from doing and becoming all of the awful things we've mentioned above. And I feel like at that point, you could almost just wrap it up.

[7:56] Like, isn't that a pretty big thing? That is a large task there. There are some people out there, unnoticed, in the church, doing some pretty awful stuff.

[8:08] Defiling flesh, rejecting authority, blaspheming, hidden reefs, waterless clouds, fruitless trees. And this is just, as I was skimming, I was pulling out some of the things. Like, this is a pretty easy, there were some pretty awful things happening.

[8:21] But he is able to keep you from becoming that. He's able to keep you. As I was preparing for today, I kept stopping on that phrase, him who is able to keep you.

[8:41] And I kind of got stuck on it. What does it mean to be kept? What does that mean? Here, the word kept is philasso.

[8:51] And it's defined to keep, to guard, to protect. So if keep could also be translated as guard, you could read the text, not to him who is able to guard you from stumbling.

[9:02] What I like about knowing this synonym is how it points to how we were protected. Because another place we see this philasso word is in Luke 2. Luke 2, 8.

[9:14] We see a shepherd-flock relationship play out. And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field keeping, philasso, watching, keeping watch over their flock by night.

[9:26] That word keeping is the same word that we're using in verse 24 of Jude. These shepherds that the host of angels appeared to when Jesus was born were keeping flock, guarding, protecting, watching.

[9:40] Here, this passage points to being guarded and watched over like a good shepherd does. We see this word get used again in another passage we should be very familiar with in 2 Peter 2, 5.

[9:54] If he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved, philasso, Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.

[10:09] If God is able to protect Noah and spare the seven others with Noah, God is able to spare and protect us from stumbling. If God is able to preserve Noah, God can preserve us.

[10:25] So throughout the book of Jude, Jude uses another word that's also translated as keep, and he actually uses that more often than he does in our verse here.

[10:37] Verse 24 is the only time he uses philasso. But elsewhere in the book of Jude, he uses the word that's translated keep in the way that I've been explaining it, this positive being kept, being preserved, being guarded.

[10:53] But there's another way that he uses, a negative way. And we see that in verse 6. It can also refer to sin and judgment.

[11:16] In the same way that we are guarded and protected, those acting contrary to God will be kept until judgment. Sorry, when I get up here, I just get really dry.

[11:38] When Jeremy opened this series in Jude up, preaching through the opening few verses, the greeting, my jaw dropped because of how Jude opened this letter. While I had been reading Jude, listening to Jude on repeat, I hadn't yet registered how often Jude had been talking about being kept.

[11:56] Jude 1.1 says, Jude, a servant of Jesus and brother of James, to those who are called beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus. Growing up, I had to take several speech classes, and even in 4-H, we'd have to do demonstrations or talks.

[12:10] And one of the ones that I remember giving was a talk on talks, how to give a talk. Maybe this isn't an example. Don't use what I'm doing today as that. But what I remember mentioning in that was, first you tell them what you're going to tell them, then you tell them, then you told them what you told them.

[12:28] An introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Jude seems to be using that strategy here. We are in verse 1, kept for Jesus.

[12:39] The very same Jesus that is he who is able to keep you. It's a really fun, really powerful, really comforting bookends of being kept. As Jude is in this conclusion, the tell them what you told them portion, Jude wants us to remember, even after all of the above, even after wolves sneak in, even after angels leave their dwelling, and the gloomy chains, even after people are defiling the flesh and rejecting authority and blaspheme, he is able to keep you.

[13:07] He is able to guard you. He is able to protect you. He is able. Now this promise is a personal promise.

[13:19] He is able to keep who? He is able to keep you from stumbling. And it's a you's plural, like a you all, maybe even.

[13:29] He is a southern boy, I guess. It's personal, but it's also a corporate promise. Jude goes on, not only is he able to guard you, keep you, protect you from stumbling, in addition to that large and unattainable task in and of ourselves, he is able to present you blameless, which is a continuation of that protecting and guarding.

[13:52] Were it not for Jesus's blood, being presented before God's presence would be a terrifying thing. There would not be great joy, but he is able to protect you before the judgment of God because of Jesus's blood.

[14:07] Do you see how Jude is slipping into the gospel despite telling us in verse three that he wasn't going to? Verse three says, 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.

[14:26] How good would that letter have been if we would have gotten a full 25 verses of that instead of a two quick verses that he slips it in at the end? How good would that book have been?

[14:38] So now, steadfast, so what? We are kept, we are protected, we are guarded. So what? If this doesn't draw us to our knees in worship, what are we even doing?

[14:53] This should move our hearts and pull our hearts to praise of our God. Because it can be such a, or because it is such a constant thing like gravity, we forget about it.

[15:03] We lose track. It loses its weight. There's a gravity joke for you guys. But it loses its weight. We take it for granted, but being kept, we lose track of the multitude of this task.

[15:17] This isn't just icing on the cake or dessert after a meal. This is like cherry berry. It's a buffet of dessert. There is so much goodness in this passage that you can't possibly have room for the food.

[15:29] But we ought to have room to be drawn to worship because this is the gospel. When certain people creep in unnoticed, you will be kept. When angels leave their position of authority and their proper dwelling, he will keep you.

[15:42] When people defile the flesh, reject authority and blaspheme, he will keep you. When there are scoffers following their ungodly passions, he will keep you. When you encounter people devoid of the spirit, he will keep you.

[15:55] For his glory, he will keep you. Because of his power and through his authority, you are kept. And you have been kept from before all time. You are kept now and you will be kept forever.

[16:06] Amen.