Transcript

Sermon Transcript: Glorifying God

2/2/2020 Jeff Schwarzentraub 36 min read

Well, thank you so much for choosing to worship with us today. And as we continue our worship, let's prepare our hearts to hear God's living and active word among us. Would you pray with me this morning? Lord Jesus, we give you all the glory honor and praise for who you are. We thank you for the privilege of worshiping your great name through song and through prayer and now through hearing your word. And Lord, our prayer this morning is that you would speak Lord so that we can hear you. Lord, we believe every time your book is faithfully proclaimed that you have a message for us, so that we understand more about who you are, how we can relate to you, and specifically, what you want us to take a step of faith to do in being obedient to you.

And so, now for all who are gathered here, who desire to hear the Lord, who want to honor him and who want to take steps of faith in drawing closer to him, would you agree with me this morning by very loudly saying the word amen. Amen. You may know, and you may not know that this afternoon is Superbowl 54. Okay. For many of you, it means you're going to watch every single play, for others of you it means it's going to be background noise when you get together with friends and for others of you, it means absolutely nothing. It's just another Sunday, and whatever it is, you need to understand that at some point during the game today, in all likelihood, somebody is going to make a great play.

And when they do, you may see them do something like this, either pounding their chest, but they'll start pointing in the air like that. As if to say, "It's not me, it's God." And for some of the people that do that, they have a genuine relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and they're deflecting glory off themself to give honor and praise to God. Whereas for others, it's just a symbol to do that. Just pointing up to the heavens at the end of the game, regardless of who wins or loses, there'll be a platform that's rolled out where people will be honored and be given awards for all that they accomplished during the season and there's one winner.

In the book of Jude, we've been taking a look at what it looks like to keep the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ and how it is we fight for that. We took a look at how the Lord assembles his army of those who believe in him. Then we took a look at what it means to expose the enemies and lies of those who are preaching some form of false gospel. And then, last week we talked about how it is we strike back in love and what does it look like? But here's the great news of the book of Jude, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you already have the victory in him. You're already on the winning team and Jude has painted a picture for us as to what that's going to look like someday when all of us who have named the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ are going to get to stand with him.

And this is such good news because for so many of us, we don't have a platform to point at the heavens when other people notice us. Like in my family, my wife predominantly makes all of our meals and when I say predominantly, it means I've ordered fast food a couple times and have used the microwave on occasion. So she predominantly makes food, but I've never seen Kim prepare a meal and then lay it out where we've said, "Mom, that looks great," or, "Kim, that looks awesome." And she's like, "Hey right there, baby. It's all Jesus." I mean, it just doesn't fit or like, every Wednesday, it's my responsibility, I roll the garbage all the way down the driveway, and if Kim were to say, "Jeff, that was awesome." I'm like, "Hey, it's not me. That's Jesus. I was just doing the rolling, but he gave me all the power to do it."

I mean, we really don't have places in our life that seem notable enough where we would point to the heavens for what we're doing. And so, what Jude is talking about for every believer, what does it look like for us to glorify God? Like how do we do that? Knowing that we have the victory, what does it look like for us to do? And so, that's what Jude is going to tell us about. And so, if you'd open your Bible to the book of Jude, as we've talked about, it's one chapter lon., we're going to look at the last two verses versus 24 and 25 and if you don't have a copy of God's word, there's one under every other chair, take that. That's our gift to you and use that.

And let me read these verses to you, and then we will unpack them together. Here's what he says. "Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless 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 forevermore, amen." Okay. That should throw your heart a lot more than I'm seeing the responses on your face.

Because here's what he's saying's going to happen someday on the platform when those of us who are believers respond to him. So, give me a better response. I'll read it again since you didn't it the first time. It says this, "Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless 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 forevermore, amen.

Amen.

All right. Yeah. That's what it should feel like to us because Jude is telling us what is coming because of the victory that we already have in Jesus. Now this is written by guys we've talked about that grew up in the family of Jesus, right? He's the son of Mary and Joseph. His older brother was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of Mary before she'd ever been with Joseph, who is God in flesh, who grew up as his older brother in the family. But Jude has come to the realization he's not crazy. He's not weird. He's not just out there, he truly is the king of kings and the Lord of Lords and I will bow in submission to him and it's through him and through him alone that we have victory in his name.

So what does it look like for us to glorify God? It seems like a vague thing. What does it mean to bring glory? And so, Jude is going to tell us how we can glorify God and we'll look at three ways this morning that we can do that. The first is this. We glorify God through our certainty of his ability. We glorify God through our certainty of his ability. Notice what it says. Now to him. Now to him, who's him? The Lord, Jesus Christ. What's glory all about? It's all about worshiping and giving honor to the Lord, Jesus Christ. It's all about giving him praise. It's all about him. Well, when? In whatever you do. The Bible says, "In whatever you do work hardly is under the Lord and not unto men."

It means whatever your lot in life is where God has you in this season. It's not about you, it's about him. If you're a dad, being a father's not about you, it's about him. If you're a mother, it's all about Jesus, it's not about you. If you're married, it's not about your marriage, your marriage is all about him. If you're single, it's not about your singleness, your singleness is all about him. If you have a job, your job's not about you, your job is all about him. Everything that you do, if you have resources, your resources are not about you, your resources are all about him. Everything you have is all about him, which means in any phase of life that you're in, you can make every phase all about him.

[inaudible 00:06:47]. It means we may not be able to pound our chest or point to heaven and be like, "It's all about him. It's all about him." But internally, we know that in whatever we do, it's all about him. Now to him. Now to him. When I woke up today, it's not about me, it's about him. The problem is prior to getting saved in our sinful state, it's not all about him, it's all about me. Now to me and my job and my life and my relationships and my money and my health. Now to me, now to me, now to me, now to me. And so, when we think about praying to God, what are we praying about? Me. My life's gotten hard. My life, me, me, me, me, me. But after we're converted, because we have a new identity in Jesus Christ, it's now to him.

And when I go through a trial, it's now it's unto him. When I go through success, that's unto him. When I go through mundane times, that's all to him. When I have the job of my dreams, that's all to him. When I have a job I can't stand, it's all to him. When I don't have a job, it's all to him. Everything is now to him because he is the one and only one who is worthy of all of our praise and all of our glory and all of our honor. So it's our certainty of his ability, because now to him, who is what? See that in your bible? Him, who is able. What's able? That's ability. Now to him who is able. We talked about our certainty and his ability. Well, how able is God? What can God do?

What ability does he have? Because sometimes we'll watch a sporting event and we'll see some incredible athlete and we'll say, "Wow, look at that ability. Very few people can do what she did. Very few people can do what he did," or we'll see somebody, maybe you've been to a Broadway show and you'll see somebody sing and you'll be like, "Wow, that is an incredible ability. I've never really heard anybody sing like that before." Or maybe you'll see somebody play music and you'll say, "Man, look at that talent. They have such ability." Ability is they're able to do something that not everybody is able to do. Now to him who is able. So if we're going to put our certainty or our faith in what the Lord's ability is how able is he? Because that's a fair question. Is he really worth trusting in this?

And so, I just wrote down a few scriptures. This is not [inaudible 00:09:01] but those will give you an idea about some of the things that our God is able to do. Write this verse down. It's Romans chapter 16, Romans chapter 16:25. It says this, "Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ." He's able to do what? He's able to establish us. That means to strengthen us. Our God is not only able to save us, but to give us strength for everything we need. Where you are weak, there he is strong. He is able in your, your weakness to give you strength. That's one of his abilities. He's awesome at that. To give you strength. He can give you firmness. He can give you conviction. It's why God can not only take wayward sinner and save them, God is able to take that former sinner and make them a Saint and strengthen them, encourage them and confirm in them.

So that one person who was rebellious against God can now stand firm in the faith and say, "Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus Christ is my strength. Jesus Christ is my God." Can I get a witness this morning that he's done that in anybody's life here? I mean, that's what he does. He strengthens you. He has the ability to do that. It's not just like we look out at non-believers and say, "I don't think he can do that." Look at you, look in the mirror. He did it with you. He can do it with anybody. Our God is able to strengthen you. How about this one. Second Corinthians chapter 9:8. Second Corinthians 9:8. "And God is able." There's that word ability.

"He is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed." What's he able to do? He's able to give how much grace? All of it. Grace is God's unmerited favor over every area in your life. He's able to give it all to you so that in all things you have all sufficiency. What does that mean? It means God is able. He has the ability to release his grace or his power in your life in such a way that everything he created you for and designed you for you are able to accomplish and you are sufficient in him and you don't need anyone but him to accomplish what God wants in your life. Now why is that important? Because you'll hear a lie in your head that says, "I don't have the right connections.

I don't have the right amount of money. I don't have the right resources. I don't have enough health. I don't have this." Here's what God says, "I am able to give you everything you need through my grace, so that in every situation, in all things, you will be all sufficient for everything." Having what? Even an abundance or an overflow of his grace, I can do more than you even think I can do with you because that's what I do. It's as if God's standing on the victory platform saying, "Listen, I'm able to do all things. I'm able to strengthen you. I'm able to give you all grace. I can do it in anybody. I can do it anywhere. I can do it at any time." Our God is able. Amen.

Amen.

But how about this? Just by a show of hands, how many hair have struggled with sin before? Just out of curiosity. Anybody here this morning? Okay, good. Thanks for participating. Sometimes as a Christian, when we struggle with sin, you're like, "Am I ever going to get out of this? I mean, how do I do this? It just doesn't seem to be working for me. I'm struggling with the same thing." My dad struggled with it. His dad struggled with it. I'm sure his dad struggled with it, but I've never met him before. I mean, it just seems to be who I am. I'm always going to struggle with this. Hebrews 2:18 says the opposite. "For, since he, himself, Jesus was tempted in that which he has suffered, he is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted." How about that?

He's not just going to come watch you sin, he's able to come to the aid of those who are tempted. You struggle with temptation, I'm feeling so tempted to do. I don't even know how am I ever going to say no, because our God is able to provide a way out every time you call upon his name. He has the ability to get you out of sin. That's who our God is. Isn't that awesome news? It means you're not doomed as a believer to continue the same pattern of sin that you used to have before you got saved. Because our God is able, and nothing is too hard for him. Just staying in the book of Hebrews and giving you a little taster for where we're going next week when we start our series on the word of God.

Listen to this, "For the word of God is living and active," this is Hebrews 4:12, "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edge sword it and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." What does the word of God have the ability to do? To know you in a way that no one else knows you. To know you in a way that you don't even know yourself. That God can judge the attitudes and intentions of your heart, and even as you sit here this morning, God knows what's going on in your life. It's why when you're under the word of God and you're hearing the word of God preach or you're studying on your own and you want to hear God speak to you, there are times where God will reveal things in your heart at a level that you just needed to hear God.

And it's so encouraging. I didn't even know I was struggling with that. I didn't even know I felt hopeless in that area. God, thanks for showing me how much you love me. He knows that. God also has the ability to show you areas in your life that are sinful. God has the ability to show you areas in your life that are hindering your walk with him, where instead of leaving here with tears in your eyes saying, "Thank you, Lord, I needed that encouragement." Perhaps there's days you leave with tears in your eyes like, "Lord, I needed that and I didn't want to hear that this morning.

I didn't realize that that area of my life was so stubborn. I didn't realize that area of my life was so rebellious. I thought I was just doing fine. Well, thanks a lot," right? I mean that's what the word of God, because he knows you. It can penetrate the deepest place of your heart that even if you can hide from anyone else you can't hide from God's word. Amen.

Amen.

Staying in the book of Hebrews, what else is he able to do? Hebrew 7:25. And as I said, this is not exhaustive. I'm just picking a few. "Therefore, he is able to save forever those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them." What's God able to do? He's able to save people. Well for how long? Forever. Well how long's forever? Yeah, that long. Like when you get there, it's still going. He's able to save forever. Why? Because he lives to make intercession for those who know him. What's that mean? It means if you're a believer in Christ. One of the thing that Jesus Christ is presently doing for you right now is he's praying to his father on behalf of you because he knows everything that's going to happen in your life before you even get there.

He's already there. So he's interceding for you to ensure the fact that he's going to hold you in his hand and save you forever. Is that hopeful or what? I mean, that's what he's able to do. That's a pretty big deal. If you could do that for one person, it's a miracle, he does it for everyone who is in Christ. That's who he is. And in case you're here and you're saying, "Well, I don't know if any of those apply to me," they all do but in case you're saying that, I mean, what's he able to do? He's able to strengthen you. He's able to give you all grace for all sufficiency and all things, so that you can have an abundance.

He's able to come to your aid in temptation. He knows you deeply, he's able to save you forever. And in case you're like, "Yeah, that's okay, but what else can he do?" I got an answer for you from his word. In Ephesians chapter three versus 20 and 21, which is probably the most popular scripture about his ability. It says, "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever, amen." What it means is, well, what else can he do? Far more abundantly than ever you could ask or think.Anything you could ask God for, he can do more abundantly than that.

He has the ability to do more abundantly than you could ask for. He has the ability to do more abundantly than you can think about. Our God is able. His track record is perfect. His ability is flawless. He's able to do it all, which is why on the platform when we meet him face to face, it's all going to be about this. It's not going to be about us because he has all the ability and we're depending upon everything he gives to us. Amen. So that is a backdrop now to him who is able, what does Jude say he's able to do? Jude gives us another illustration of what our God is able to do, and this is so hopeful. "Now to him who is able," look at this, "to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory blameless with great joy."

And you should say, "Whoa. I mean, that's amazing." Sometimes we think of salvation only as in a moment when we trust Jesus Christ and his spirit comes to [inaudible 00:17:45] and we've been made new from the inside and I'm am saved. I'm saved, I'm saved, I'm saved. I got saved five years ago. I got saved 20 years. I'm saved. I mean here's what salvation does, you have the ever living God on the inside and what is he able to do? He's able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless with great joy. Keep you from stumbling. What does that mean? It means you reaching the finish line with Jesus has everything to do with him and nothing to do with you. I don't know if I'm going to make it.

Like I'm still struggling in this life. I still have hindrances and I still have sin and am I going to make it? He, now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling. It doesn't mean he has ability and could do it, it means in the life of every Saint, he does do it. Every person who has saved, he brings across the finish line, which means when you're in those seasons of your life, where you're saying to yourself in the depth of your soul, "I don't know if I'm going to make it. I don't know if I'm going to get there. How do I know I'm not going to turn away?" He is able to keep you from stumbling. You are not going to fall. You are not going to fail. You will be with him. It is an iron clad guarantee from the word of God. Amen.

It means this, you can't sin your way out of the kingdom. I think I sinned too much because pastor Jeff's referred to these people that God still saves, but I may not be one of them because I trusted Jesus and I know he forgave me, but wow. Since I trusted him, I mean I've sin some sins. I don't know if they're forgivable. At the cross, here's what Jesus said. "It is finished. It is complete. It's already been washed. It's already been done," and he's going to keep you from stumbling. Praise God. When you pray, thank God. Thank you, God, I don't know how long I'm going to live, but I know you're going to keep me from stumbling and falling on my face and that you're going to bring me into your kingdom. It's as good as done. Amen.

Amen.

And that's what he says. Now to him who is able, he doesn't say you're able, he doesn't say, "Hey, you keep running really hard and Jesus will hold you up." He didn't say anything about your ability. He's saying everything about his. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and do what? And make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless. Now think about this for a second. God's glory is so overwhelming. It's who he is. It's his character. It's his nature. We'll talk about it here in just a little bit. It's who he is. When you get to heaven, he is going to cause you or make you stand in the presence of his glory. Now we wonder sometimes like, "Well, what are we going to do? Are we going to fall on our face? We going to worship him?"

Probably all sorts of things we're going to do. But in the weight of his glory, what's he going to do? He's going to cause you to stand. When you get there, he's going to cause you to stand. I mean, you don't belong there, but he's bringing you there. I mean, think about who you were before you became a believer. You were dead, you were lost. You were an enemy of Christ, but what did God do? He transferred you from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's beloved son in whom we have redemption and forgiveness of sins. You were something, but now you're something different, right? You were lost. Guess what? Now you're found. You were an enemy, but now you're friend. You were dead, but now you're alive. You were rebellious, now you've been bought with a price.

It's like this. I don't know what you're like with your cars, I don't really take my car to the car wash every three days or every week or even every month. And when a car gets so dirty that your kids are writing, "Wash me," on it, that's usually my time, an indicator I probably should go get the thing clean. But have you ever noticed after you take a dirty vehicle through the car wash and it comes out, you like your car better? It's like, wow, this isn't so bad. I mean, it looks so good right now. I wish it looked like this all the time. Well take it to the cleaners, right? But that's what it's going to be like. When we get to heaven, you got to realize that God's washing a bus is not just the outside. God's washing a bus, starts on the inside and comes all the way to the outside.

So think about who you used to be. Think about your sin. Think about your sin after you became a believer. Think about all the things that you're ashamed about and here's the really good news, here's what's so hopeful for many Christians. They falsely believe that when they get to heaven, there's going to be this huge platform with huge jumbotron screens, way bigger than the three that we have behind us and God, when it comes your turn to meet him is going to call you by your first middle and last name. He's going to bring you up and he's going to sit there with a remote control clicker and say, "Hey, it's time to watch some video footage." And we're going to be like, "Oh, no." And he's going to start rolling through our life.

From the time we were young, until we got into grade school, until we got into high school and every weird, sinful, awful thing we thought did or said, God's going to sit there and be like, "Man, you're lucky you had Jesus, aren't you," right? And we get worried about that. That's not what's going to happen, because the only thing on your screen that you will ever see is the Lord Jesus Christ with his arms out stretched saying, "Paid in full." It's already been taken care of. So when you come through to glory, here's what's going to be like, from the inside out, you are going to meet Jesus and he's going to cause you to stand in the presence of his glory.

I mean, it's going to be like everything in a moment in your life, all known sin is gone. All memory of any sin you've ever sinned is gone. You won't even know how to sin anymore. Every blemish from the inside, outside thought word and deed that you ever did, it's wrong. I mean, you're going to come through the heavenly car wash, so to speak, and you're going to get there and you're going to twirl around. I mean, you're going to be so blown away with who you are that that's why there's going to be incredible, great joy. Because you're going to see yourself for who God really intended you to be and you're going to say, "Glory. I mean, how did this even happen?" And then you're going to see some of your friends and you're going to be blown away by them too.

And you were going to say, "If I would've known you like this on earth, we would've been way closer." Because it's going to blow you away because God's going to bring us into his presence and so, there's going to be great joy on our part. And you have to be hopeful looking forward to that. When Jesus was baptized, God, the father spoke in a way that everybody around could hear. He said, "This is my beloved son in whom I love, in him I am well pleased." Guess where the son dwells now? He dwells in the heart of every single believer. So when we get to heaven and we're ecstatic and we have all this great joy, like, "Oh my gosh, look at who I am. I have the victory." You know what Jesus is going to say? "The moment you trusted me on earth, you already had it. That's how I saw you the whole time."

That's who you are right now. Live like that. You live in light of what's coming because that's how God already sees you even though the enemy lies to you and tells you, "You're a filthy, miserable, lousy sinner. Look at how bad you are. You're lucky you have God. He's going to take you probably, but maybe not. I don't know." No, no. I already have the victory. If you trusted Jesus Christ, you already have the victory and everything that you're about ready to experience is already true about you right now. Amen. That's great news this morning. That's what Jude is telling us. Jude hasn't been to heaven yet coming back and saying, "This is what it's going to be." Jude, by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit is telling us this is what's coming. Well, when's it going to happen? Soon. Very soon. When pastor Jeff? Yes. Soon.

That's what the bible is clear on. It's going to happen. And when it does, there's going to be exceedingly great joy. But guess what? It's not just you that's going to be joyous. See, we get the false picture of Jesus standing off to the side with some sort of contempt or disgust like, "Yeah, my dad made me die for you too, but man, it's been hard to watch your life and I'm glad you're here and finally redeemed, so I don't have to watch it anymore." That's not how Jesus is. Who's going to have great joy? You're going to have great joy and Jesus is going to be overflowing with joy saying, "Dad, this is who I saved. Perfect. Woo." That's how he sees you. That's how he sees his church.

When you read these verses and you know what the church is like, just study the history of the church. From the time that Jesus gave the great commission that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him, go make disciples, from that moment until now, has the church done anything wrong? Has the church screwed up in any way? Has the church and people in the church ever hurt anybody? Has the church been blemished in anyway? I mean, the fact that the church still exists is evidence that the Holy Spirit is still alive. I mean, even churches like ours that are trying to do what Jesus wants us to do, still mess up. And then, there's churches that purposely try to thwart the church and the church is still going, and what's Jesus going to do someday?

He's going to take every person that's trusted in him and he's going to present him all, all of us at one time faultless before his father with exceedingly great joy. So while we're rejoicing as to who we are, Jesus is going to be rejoicing as to who we are because he did all the work and it's to him who has the ability to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in his glory with great joy, amen. That's what's coming. And while many of us will never have an Oscar and many of us will never stand on a platform for a Superbowl trophy. And many of us will never, ever experience like that, all those things pale in comparison to what's coming, for every single believer in Jesus Christ.

And it's going to be a glorious day. A glorious day. Because you're going to see people that God redeemed, that he began to work out and sanctify a little more and you're going to meet people that God saved at the end of their life, where their stuff was still so messed up but in a moment, it's all gone. In a moment, it's presented. In a moment, it's perfect. And what we're praising him for is the gospel of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And it's our certainty in his ability to do that, that brings him glory. You don't need to doubt that God's going to do that in your life. If you've repented of your sin and trusted Jesus Christ as your savior, your certainty, that God's going to do that in your life brings him great glory. When you're able to pray to God and say, "God, I know I'm going to stand faultless before you.

I know we're both going to have exceedingly great joy, and I know it has nothing to do with me and it has everything to do with you." That gives God great glory. It gives him honor. It gives him praise. That's why we sing to him and pray to him and read his word and study who he is because we want to be aligned with what's coming. It's who we are. And it should cause us to break out with great joy, amazing joy and hope because of our God's ability to save us forever and to present us faultless before his father in heaven. Amen. So one way we worship God, one way we glorify God is our certainty. I'm sure this is going to happen. Our certainty of his ability. Secondly, we glorify God through our inexpressibility of his exclusivity. Our inexpressibility of his exclusivity. In other words, inexpressibility means I can't put into words what I'm trying to say about who you are and your uniqueness and your exclusivity.

Notice what he says in verse 25. "To the only God, our savior," politically incorrect. Oh my gosh, can you believe the bible's politically incorrect? I mean, there's a lot of people that don't believe that. Well what about all those other religions out there? Pastor Jeff? What about people that are Hindu or what about people that follow the saints of Confucius or what about Muslim or what about Jews or what about Jehovah Witnesses or what about Mormons? What would you say about all these people? I would say exactly what Jude said, "Now to him, the only God." To the only God. There's only one God. Made up of father, son and Holy Spirit. That's the only God are no other gods.

Amen.

In case you want to try out to be a God someday, or in case you're involved in a religion and you're like, "Is my God really God?" Here's one of the prerequisites to being God, okay? You have to have always existed and been self sustaining. There can never be a time that you didn't exist. If we rolled out time before time was, and we said, "Hey, were you there before that?" He's like, "Of course, there's never been time. There's never been a time that I didn't exist," and you need to be self sustaining in the present. You need to be self sustaining in the future. That's just the prereq for being God. The bible reveals that the father, son and the Holy Spirit making up one God are the only one in the universe that fit that description.

That's right. Amen.

That's why we worship the Lord, Jesus Christ. We're not talking about a guy that came a God 2,000 years ago, we're talking about the second person of the Trinity, the eternal son of God who has always existed. And there was never a time that he didn't exist, but was born of the Virgin Mary, was conceived by the Holy Spirit and came into the world to reveal and flesh who our God is, who has always existed, who exists now and will exist forever more. That's who he is. That's just prereq in case you want tryouts. That's what it looks like. The only God. Well, how do you know yours is right? Because he's our savior. How do you know that yours is the only ... Because he saved us.

How do you know it's true? Because he saved me. These are politically incorrect statements in our culture that would say, and I noticed this too, just a side note, when people say, [inaudible 00:31:02] stuff like this, "We'll keep you in our prayers. We'll keep you in our prayers." Now we don't say that. What do we say? Keep you in our thoughts, which I think is much more authentic because they never prayed anyway, right? So I like that. I appreciate your honesty. Keep you in my thoughts, right? Who are we praying to? The only God, our savior. Well, who is he? Who's the only God your savior through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Jesus said, "I am the way the truth and the life. And no one comes to the father except through me." The gospel of Jesus Christ is exclusive. There's only one way to the father, it's through Jesus Christ the righteous one. There is no other way. And here's what I'd say to anybody anywhere at any time, regardless of gender, regardless of nationality, regardless of background, regardless of family, regardless of where you grew up, anything like that, well what about me? Here's the truth. If you realize you're a sinner and repent of your sin and trust Jesus Christ is Lord, you will be saved. So while the gospel is exclusive and there's only one way to God, that's not a bad thing.

All the Bible's doing is revealing that's who our God is. All we're doing is proclaiming that's who God is. When Jesus came into the world, that's what he proclaimed he was and he is, and he is to come. There's nothing wrong with him being exclusive, right? But he's also inclusive in this that anyone who would repent of his or her sin and trust Jesus Christ can have access and entrance into the kingdom of God. There's one way but anybody can come that one way. The reason why people don't want to come that one way is because they don't want Jesus. They want to make up their own way to get to heaven. And it's interesting for me when I hear stories or I get called to do a funeral and I hear stories where we read the news about somebody really famous who has passed away and died and everybody's shocked by it.

As if to say, "I can't believe the person's dead." Well, what did you think was going to happen? Tragedy happens because it wasn't the time we thought it was going to happen, but there are no tragedies with God because he knows every breath, every moment, every minute, there's nobody that dies and stands before Jesus where God says, "Wasn't expecting you today." I mean, it was exactly the right time, and here's the truth, not only might that be shocking to you, but you're just as terminal as they are as well. And your card may be called today, right? It's the exclusivity of the gospel, but it's our inexpressibility about it. So how do we talk about this one eternal God who's always existed, who knows all things, who is all things, whose in and through all things, things were created by him whether we see them or don't see them, thrones, dominions, rulers and authorities?

How do we express to him what that looks like? And I want to argue with you this morning, there's no English words to do it. I mean, it's why when you read through the Bible about people who had visions of heaven, you read about in the book of Revelation or in different places like Isaiah when he saw the Lord high and lifted up and we read those writings, what they're writing back to us. We're like, "Man, those are so hard to understand, those apocalyptic visions, I just don't even understand it." Why? Because if those authors were here, they would say, "Man, I did the best I could, but there weren't even words that I could use to describe what I saw. I did my best under the inspiration of the whole Holy Spirit to give you a glimpse.

Why? Because when you get to heaven, you're going to see colors you've never seen before. You're going to hear sounds you've never heard before. You're going to feel sensations you've never felt before and smell things you've never smelled before and feel things and touch things. It's so different that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived god has it for those who love them. It's so otherworldly that when we read about it in the Bible, we're like, "I don't quite understand that. It's just, wow." And the author would say, "Yeah, that's what I was saying when I was there too. It's hard to describe what I saw," right? Because there's no words to give it, but Jude tries and the words he gives are accurate and they're under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so they're definitely true. They're just not complete in everything.

So what does he say? To the only God our savior through Jesus Christ or Lord be what? Glory, majesty, dominion and authority. What's glory? Glory is the splendor of God. It's his very nature. It's his brightness. It's his amazing might. I've heard it said as light is to bulb as water is to wet, so is glory to God. It's who he is. It defines his personhood. It defines his nature. He's glorious. We're not. Now to him, be all glory. To him, he gets the glory. It's who he is. It's his very nature. If God only thought about himself all the time, there'd be nothing wrong with that because he's the only perfect being in the universe. And yet, he demonstrates his love for us by sending his only begotten son, Jesus Christ to die for us and give thought to humanity whom he loves.

But he would be just fine if he only thought about himself, because all glory is his. Be glory to God. Be what else? Be majesty. Majesty is his prominence or his greatness. Majesty. Now here's why I'm telling you we don't have enough English words to describe this. So if you've ever had a friend that went out to a restaurant and they ask you, "Hey, have you ever been to that?" And he is like, "No." "Hey, you need to go there. The food is awesome." "Hey, have you ever seen that guy play his sport?" "No, I haven't seen him." "Man, you need to tune in and watch him. That guy is great." "Hey, have you ever gone and seen that movie?" "No, I haven't seen it." "Man, that movie's incredible."

Then we use those same words, awesome, great and incredible to describe our God. But God's nothing like food. God's nothing like a movie and God's nothing like an athlete. I mean there aren't words. I mean, we're not saying the same thing. When we talk about majesty, we're talking about there's greatness like there's nobody else even comes close. He is all great. He is all good. Majesty, worship his majesty. He's majestic. He's worthy. Have everything we give him because he's great and there's not even somebody that compares. See, we get false ideas because we're Americans for most of us and we think when we get to heaven, there's God, the father, God, the son and God, the Holy Spirit and they're glorious and then there's this rank.

So there's the apostle Paul and then you're going to get down the list and then there's Billy Graham and then you're going ... No. There's God and there's every everybody else there who is dependent upon God who is great. That's who he is. He's majestic. Guess what else he has? Be glory, majesty, dominion. What's dominion? Dominion is power. It's his power. Now how much power does the Bible say God has? All. He has all dominion. I mean, there's nothing he can do or he'd have to sweat. Now you're in situations in life like I am in life where oftentimes like, "Eh, I don't see how I'm going to get out. I don't have the power." God's like, "I could do that with my feet up on a chair. I mean, this is easy. Nothing's hard for me. I have all power."

He's all powerful. He created the world in six days and then he rested on the seventh, but he didn't rest because he was tired. He could have created a whole other universe on the seventh day. He rested to model for us how to work. Nothing's hard for him. Totally easy. He has all power. But guess what he has also? He has all authority. Authority is his jurisdiction or his ability to rule in a certain area. So some of us have authority, like parents, you have authority over your kids, but just because you have authority over your kids doesn't mean you have authority over me or you have authority at work. You have jurisdictional authority.

Just because you're a police officer on duty and you have jurisdiction for a certain area, doesn't mean that you can exceed your jurisdiction. You have a place for your authority. Where does Jesus' jurisdiction begin and end? Here's what he said when he rose from the dead, "All authority," where? Where Jesus? How much do you have? "in heaven and on earth has been given to me." Meaning this, everywhere I go, I have full jurisdiction to exercise my power in any way that I want. "That's who I am," Jesus says. That's awesome. I mean power and authority go hand in glove, so I've used this example before, but you may have the power to go out on I25 and stop traffic if you're brave enough.

You can go out, put on that orange vest and say, "Slow down." You may have the power to do that. I'm going to tell you right now, you don't have the jurisdiction or authority to do that. But whatever Jesus chooses to do, he's got all power and he's got all jurisdiction and he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants to do it because he's the king of kings and the Lord of Lords and at his name, every knee will bow in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the father, amen. That's who he is. But even when we say these words, it's like I get it, but I don't get it because when you get there and you see that all that's true, there's going to be expressions of, whoa, right?

I mean, because he's that glorious and that good, and what's coming is worthy of all your praise and honor. It's what worship is. It's worth-ship. I'm giving glory to my God because he's worthy of everything I have. To the only God our savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, when? Well before all time and now and forevermore, amen. One of the ways we glorify God the third way here and I'll be short on it, is our sincerity of his externality. Our sincerity of his externality. Well, when did Jesus come? We began to talk about it before all time and now and forevermore. Well where was Jesus before I was born? He was there. Well where is Jesus today? He's right now. Well where is he going to be? He's already out there.

See, it's not that he was that and he is that and it is just to come. That's [inaudible 00:40:55] describe it in the book of Revelations, who was and who is and who is to come. Here's what we're saying, he's always been eternity passed. He's always living in the present and he's always living in the future all at the same time. Well how can he do that? Because he's God. That's who he is. He's not like us. Time was created by him, so we can understand how things function. There is no time with God. He stands outside at time. He's always been, he's always is, he always will be because he stands outside of time. We don't even know what's going to happen later this afternoon, he knows what's going to happen 10 billionaire years from now and he's already there.

Well how can he be there? Because he is God, and he's worthy of all our worship and all our honor and all our praise and that's why this text ends with the word amen. Amen. Now, we need to redeem that word a little bit because the only time we really ever use it is in church. It's kind of like this religious word. Like somebody says something we're like, "Oh, amen brother. Amen sister. Amen." What do we mean when we say amen? I'm agreeing with you and being supernaturally churchy, so you think I'm spiritual. Amen. Amen. Amen. What does amen mean? It means truly. It means sincerely. It means I believe this. It means I own this. I know that this true from the depths of our heart. Martin Luther said in his small catechism, why do we say amen at the end of prayers? He says, "We say amen because we are certain that such petitions are pleasing to our father in heaven and are heard by him."

When we end our prayer time before I preach, I'll often have you say amen with me, why do I do that? Well, because we're in church and you're pastor, that's what you say. Amen. I'll just say it. No, no. When you're saying amen, you're saying, "God, I'm here and your word is about to be opened. And I believe every time it's opened, I hear you. And I believe you're going to reveal more about who you are than I know right now. And I want to honor who you are, and I want you to reveal who I am in light of who you are. And Lord, I believe because you're living and active, you're going to speak this morning. And whatever it is you show me about me and what I need to change or stop doing, or start doing differently, I want all of it and I want all of it now and my heart and my mind are totally attentive to anything you would say, amen, do that, Jesus."

That's what it means. So when Jude is writing this, that's what he's saying. He's given a very hopeful certainty about the glory of God that is to come and how we can praise him and say do it Lord. And here's what he says, "Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless with great joy, to the only God, our savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord," be what? "Glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time and now and forever more, amen," and amen. That's what it looks like to glorify God. These two verses, two of the best verses, it's all Gods word, but two of the most encouraging verses in the entire New Testament.

The promise of God that if you're a believer in Christ, this is who you already are and this is what you can forward too. A call to those who don't believe in Jesus Christ that the true gospel is this, that God, the father sent his son to be the savior of the world. That through Jesus Christ and through Jesus Christ alone, you can have life in his name. And when you repent and you trust that Jesus Christ is the Lord of your life no one can snatch you out of his hand. You are his and you are his forever and ever, amen and amen and amen. Amen.

Amen.

Let's pray together today. Lord Jesus, as we come before your throne and Lord, we look forward to today that we get to stand with you in your glory so that we can give you all the praise. Lord, today as we stand around a platform and celebrate a couple individuals or a few teammates that have done some significant things, Lord, we're looking forward to the day we stand around your throne and see everything that you've ever done, and just worship your great name because you are so worthy. If you're here today and you would say, "I don't know that I'm going to be there. I don't know there's ever been a time I've trusted in Jesus Christ," then here's how you can pray.

Lord Jesus, I know for sure I'm a sinner. No doubt about that. But I've heard today that you died on the cross for all my sin, that you were buried and that you were raised from the dead. And right now I want to confess you as my Lord and savior. Lord, take all my sin away and come be the Lord of my life. And Lord, for those of us who have prayed that prayer before, Lord remind us that we're already yours, that we already have the victory in you, that you're already doing the work and Lord we yearn for the day and look forward to the day we will stand in the glory of your presence with exceedingly great abundant joy. Lord, we love you. We bless you. We honor you and we worship you in Jesus name, amen and amen.