Jude 24-25

Its the idea that God keeps us in Christ by his power. That if it were up to us to persevere in Christ and white knuckle God’s grace, every single one of us would lose our grip.

But God in his amazing, powerful, saving grace promises to never let go of us. To keep us and preserve us against every trial, every temptation, and every weakness we might face.

Without God’s grace in the perseverance of the saints our salvation and the Christian life become a prison of doubt worry and fear because we would be left to wonder, “Have I done enough? Am I a good enough Christian? Does God still love me or was that sin one too many times? Am I still saved?”

But the perseverance of the saints, the doctrine of eternal security gives us rest, and peace, and life because we don’t save us. From the beginning of our salvation to the end of our salvation God saves us. And this makes God worthy of all of our worship.

Let’s get into what Jude says. Jude starts by saying Now to him. Well who’s Him? Context tells us. Verse 25. To the only God. Jude is clearly talking about God here.

And what Jude is doing is highlighting two specific things God does in saving us, and Jude highlights these two things to lay the foundation for why God is worthy of all praise from every Christian.

The first one is that God alone is able to keep you from stumbling.

The word stumbling in the context of Jude means something very specific. The root of that word means to stumble, trip, or fall down.

And for Jude it carries this idea of falling from grace. Of committing apostasy.

The sin of apostasy is ultimately the sin of unbelief. Its when someone makes the decision to abandon the faith and forsake Christ. Its when they say I am no longer a Christian and I no longer want to follow Jesus.

And this stumbling, this apostasy is a dangerous sin.

Look at what the Author of Hebrews says happens to those who commit apostasy.

Hebrews 6:4-8 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. 7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

So here’s what the author of Hebrews is saying. It is impossible for someone to repent after committing apostasy, not because that sin is too bad to be forgiven. Christ’s blood can cover and cleanse us from all sins.

It is impossible for them to repent not because God is unwilling to forgive, but because if they saw Christ, if they heard the gospel, if they “tried” Christianity for a while only to abandon it later, what will possibly convince them to come back?

Someone who commits apostasy will be hardened to the gospel because when someone tells them about Jesus and how he died and rose again for their sin, they will just say, “Been there. Done that. Didn’t work.”

They will hear the water of the gospel and instead producing a fruitful crop in repentance, they will only produce thorns and thistles. And Hebrews says someone who rejects Christ is worthless, near to being cursed, destined to be burned in the eternal fire of hell.

Apostasy leads to damnation. To suffering God’s judgment for all eternity.

Now people that commit apostasy do not lose their salvation. That’s one of the big ideas of perseverance of the saints. You can’t lose what you did not earn.

John says in 1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.

Someone who commits apostasy didn’t lose their salvation. All they did was show that their salvation was never genuine to begin with. That they were deceived and never actually trusted in Christ.

But like John said. If they had been of us they would have continued with us. Why? Not because we are better at being a Christian. We persevere because God himself keeps us.

That’s exactly what Jude says. God is able to keep Christians from stumbling, falling from grace, and committing apostasy.

That word able is key. In Greek that word means that someone actually has the power to make something happen. To accomplish what they want.

Its the difference between someone who wants to run a marathon and someone who has actually put in the work and training to have the power and endurance to finish the race.

And Jude says God has that power to keep you from stumbling. To keep you in Christ when if it were up to you, you would surely fall because God watches over you and guards you from every possible threat to your faith.

That’s exactly what the word keep means. I want you to see this because Jude makes a small shift to show us something glorious about God and his perseverance of the saints.

You might remember, Jude has used the word “keep” several times in his letter.

We are kept for Jesus Christ.

Jesus keeps angels in eternal chains.

God is keeping utter darkness for judgment against the false teachers.

And we are told to keep ourselves in the love of God.

Each time, Jude uses the same Greek word which means to watch or pay close attention to.

But here, in verse 24, for the first time in his letter, Jude uses a different word for keep. In Greek it is a military word that means to guard or watch over.

And in the Bible this specific word can carry two different nuances. And both of them give us assurance and help us to understand God’s power and promise to keep us from falling away and abandoning Christ.

On the one hand, it can mean keeping as in protecting. In the gospel of Luke, when Christ was born, God sent his angels to proclaim the good news of the Messiah to shepherds who were keeping watch over their flock.

On the other hand, this word is used to talk about a soldier who stand guard or keeps watch and specifically its used about soldiers in charge of guarding a prisoner in order to keep them from escaping.

So when you put these two together, you have a God who guards us from wolves and false teachers who want to devour your faith like a shepherd guards his flock, and you have a God who stands watch like a soldier and will do everything in his power to keep you from escaping.

In this one little word, Jude gives us the fullest of assurance that that God will keep us and protect us from falling away. His salvation is guaranteed and permanent.

In order to feel the impact of this, I want you to put yourselves in the shoes of Judes original audience.

These are believers who are being ravaged by false teachers. Christians who are seeing friends, family, and brothers and sisters in the faith abandon Christ and follow false teachers.

And throughout this entire letter, you have Jude telling you how God’s judgment on these false teachers and everyone who follows them is absolutely guaranteed and absolutely terrible.

After seeing so many people fall away, people you loved, people you thought had it all in the Christian life, you might start to wonder, “If they fell away, what’s going to happen to me? Am I deceived? Am I about to fall away and just don’t know it yet?

For most of us, it doesn’t take much for us to imagine. We live in a day where the wolves are loose and they are devouring sheep left and right.

Once saved always saved. There is nothing we can do to lose our salvation because there was nothing we ever did to gain our salvation.

3 Things: Christ Intercession, Sealing of the Spirit, God’s promise (covenant of love) Our perseverance is a trinitarian work of almighty God

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II. Once and For All Means God Will Save Us Completely

And specifically Jude identifies him as the only God. The One and Only Creator, Sovereign, Lord, Savior of the entire universe. This points to God’s glory. There’s none like him.

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III. Worshiping God Means Praising Him for All He’s Worth

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Conclusion

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Let’s Pray

Scripture Reading

Immediately you might be wondering, if this is true, if you can’t lose your salvation then why does God warn us about apostasy at all? I mean if he is going to lose no one, why worry about it? Why have passages like Hebrews 6 and 10 in the Bible at all?

The answer is because God’s warnings against apostasy are one of the means he uses to keep the saints in Christ.

Scripture is written so that the people of God might be complete. Equipped for every good work. These passages are for Christians. Why? Because when a Christian is struggling in their faith and hears these passages they hear the warning, they believe the judgment, and they come back to the Lord.

Maybe not immediately, but eventually.

Ephesians 1:3-8 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us.

Here’s where you start to see having a consistent understanding of the doctrines of grace help us with assurance that God loves us and will always love us because of Christ.

Notice it says that God, in Christ, has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Is not one of those spiritual blessings perseverance?

And then it says that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. This is the doctrine of election.

Before you ever did anything, good or evil. Before the foundation of the world God knew you and set his love on you in Christ.

That’s why it says in love he predestined us for adoption according to the purpose of his will. That word purpose means good pleasure.

Why did God choose you? Because God wanted to choose you. There was nothing in you that drew God to yourself. In our sin, all of us are wicked and wretched. Deplorable to God.

But in love, God sent Christ to die in our place. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us.

Here’s the big idea. Nothing you could ever do could make you lose your salvation or make God stop loving you because there was nothing you ever did that made God give you salvation in the first place.

There’s two things we need to see here.

First, you are saved solely on the basis of the good pleasure of God’s will. That’s what the doctrine of election means. God saved you because he chose you before the foundation of the world.

So here’s the question, can your human will or your human weakness thwart the sovereign purposes of the God of the universe?

No!

God saved you entirely by his grace. You are not saved on the basis of your work.

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