GOD IS ABLE TO KEEP YOU FROM FALLING
JUDE 24-25
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: “SENIOR MOMENT” SHOES
1. Billy had just turned 50 years old and decided to take up jogging. He went to a specialty athletic footwear store to buy a pair of running shoes.
2. When he entered the shop, he was astounded by the wide selection of jogging shoes available.
3. The assistant showed him one particular pair of shoes and said, "These might be the ideal shoes for someone of your age, sir. They’re called Nike Senior Moment shoes."
4. As Billy was trying them on, he noticed that the left shoe contained an unusual pocket next to the heel, so he asked the assistant, "What's this little pocket thing for?"
5. "So You can carry spare change, sir," replies the assistant, "so you can call your wife to pick you up when you've jogged enough."
B. TEXT
24 Now to Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, 25 To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen
C. THESIS
1. Jude tells us the wonderful news that God is working to keep us from falling from grace (Gal. 5:4 NASB).
2. Now, some of you may not be able to fall because you’re never taken your place on the solid rock of Christ yet. God's grace has never been accepted by you.
3. Others may say, “I’m once saved always saved, so it’s impossible for me to fall.”
4. The truth is, the N.T. has more than 80 verses which teach the doctrine of conditional security.
5. Yes, we’re only saved by the work of Christ, but we must “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phip. 2:12) and Jesus Himself said, “But they that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Mt. 24:13).
6. Only as we stay “in Christ” do we have eternal life; if we abandon Christ, we abandon that life as well (1 Jn. 5:11-12; John 15:6). So we have the obligation to persevere in Christ to the end.
7. So the weakest and most fallible Christian will be kept if they only cling to Christ. They may fall a thousand times, but if they only keep repenting and trusting in Christ to save them from their sins, they’re safe.
8. So we’re going to look at the 6 ways we’re liable to sin, the 4 ways God will keep us, and how God will present us faultless.
9. The title of this sermon is “God is Able to Keep You from Falling.”
I. SIX WAYS WE’RE LIABLE TO FALL
What are some of the dangers we’re warned can make Christians fall?
A. FALLING INTO ERRORS OF DOCTRINE
1. The best-taught Christian, apart from Divine Guidance, is still capable of being deceived! There’s a strange weakness which makes us infatuated with always having to have something new that no one has ever heard of.
2. People are often decoyed from the plain old truths of the Word and led into error! Only if God preserves our discernment will we not fall into some sort of error. The Bible says that in the last days, if it were possible, even the very elect might be deceived.
B. DANGER OF DECEIVERS
1. “…many deceivers…have gone out into the world” 2 Jn. 1:7. “For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders, to seduce…even the elect” Mk. 13:22.
2. There are men and women in Christian circles with smooth tongues and honeyed words. Many of them are really wolves in sheep’s clothing! May God preserve us from them.
C. DANGER OF SEPARATION FROM BODY
1. Evil spirits in the Bible always seek lonely, forlorn places (Mt. 12:43). The enemy always tries to get Christians away from the Body of Christ and off by themselves.
2. He uses many excuses and stumbling blocks to do this. Wolves always try to separate one sheep or cow from the herd, because then they can be easily overwhelmed.
3. That’s why attending church is so vital. In the Body of Christ there’s people who care about you, pastors who care and look out for you, there’s worship, prayer, the ministry of the Word, and opportunity for involvement, etc.
4. There’s strength in numbers! We need each other!
D. OUTWARD SIN
1. Another type of fall can happen to the brightest Christian; outward sin.
2. There’s many traps and temptations and sometimes Christians succumb and fall.
3. HUMOR
a. Perhaps you heard the old story about the preacher who said, "I wonder how many of you would be willing to admit that you love sin?"
b. "I do," one man said. The preacher said, "You mean to tell me that you are willing to admit in front of all of these people that you love sin?"
c. The man, "Oh no, I thought you said GIN."
E. FALLING THROUGH NEGLIGENCE
1. There are many examples of negligence; children who’re not obedient to their parents, husbands who don’t love their wives as they ought, & wives who neglect their home and relationships.
2. …Businessmen who’re dishonest in their business! I don’t care if you can sing like David or preach like Paul unless you have Christ-like character in your life.
F. HEARTS GRADUALLY GETTING COLD
1. Another type of falling is when our hearts get gradually cold; then we wander away little by little.
2. It’s like a gradual illness. Sometimes people can’t even remember when they began to feel worse – it was months ago – but now you can see their bones.
3. Their strength is depleted; their appetite’s gone.
4. They’ve got one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. We’ve got to reverse it or we’ll perish!
5. God wants you so full of the Spirit that you can charge Hell with a water pistol!
II. 4 WAYS GOD WILL KEEP YOU
A. TEACHING US THE TRUTH
1. “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path….I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against [God]” Ps. 119:105,11.
2. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” 2 Tim. 2:15.
3. “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope” Rom. 15:4.
4. The Bible is “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.” It’s our guidebook to keep us on the straight & narrow.
B. WARNING US ABOUT SECRET SIN
1. We commonly see warning labels on many household appliances.
2. CRAZY PRODUCT WARNINGS
a. Hairdryer, “Do not use while sleeping.”
b. Clothes Iron, “Do not iron clothes while they are being worn.”
c. Go-cart, “This product moves when used.”
d. Superman pajamas, “Wearing this doesn’t enable you to fly.”
e. Fire-starter Logs, “Risk of Fire.”
3. Hundreds of times in Scripture God warns us of real dangers. He’s giving us a heads-up so we won’t be blindsided by things that can make us fall.
C. LEADING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
1. The Holy Spirit also bears witness whether things are of God. We can have God’s peace or not.
2. When Paul tried to enter northern Asia, the Holy Spirit forbade him.
3. The H.S. convicts us about sin shows us what’s pleasing to God. By His help we’re kept from falling.
D. RESTRAINING US FROM TEMPTATION
1. Sometimes He keeps temptation from coming to us. At other times He allows a temptation, so that by overcoming it, we’ll be stronger.
2. Other times, if we fall into temptation, He delivers us from it by allowing some difficulty to come to us. God is more concerned about your soul than he is your body. If it’s necessary you lose a limb to save your soul, God will do that!
3. ILLUS.
a. When Sir James Thornhill was painting the inside of the cupola of St. Paul’s cathedral, he was stepping backward to get a full view of it and almost stepped over the edge of the scaffolding.
b. But a friend, who saw his danger, wisely seized one of his brushes and rubbed some paint over his picture. The artist, in a fury, rushed forward to save his painting and so saved his own life!
4. Sometimes we’ve walked backward away from God and safety—and come near to the precipice! But God kept us from falling by His great grace!
III. HOW WILL GOD PRESENT US “FAULTLESS?”
The day will come when we’ll either be presented in the courts of God as His servants, or else be driven from His Judgment Seat as rebels against His authority.
A. ALL IN HEAVEN ARE FAULTLESS
1. Jude says God will “present you faultless.” The astounding fact is that the only people who’re in Heaven are those who’re faultless!
2. Remember, no one will enter those sacred courts that could defile it. Heaven is perfectly pure and if you and I ever get there, we must be pure as the driven snow.
3. No taint of sin must be upon us. God’s flaming Throne would shoot forth columns of devouring fire (fire of God) upon any guilty soul that dares to stand in the courts of the Most High, if such were possible!
B. BUT WE’RE DEFILED!
1. Since we’re impure -- how can we ever hope to stand there? Yet Church, our confidence is that we shall stand there.
2. Why? Because Christ is able to present us faultless to God! Think for a minute how faultless Christ has made you: 3. The moment you believed in Him, you were so completely washed in His precious blood that not a spot of sin remained upon you.
4. You were cleansed from all iniquity; you were covered in a spotless robe of righteousness of Christ’s virtue. Your past sin is “cast into the depths of the sea.”
5. You may say, “I feel that there’s a stumbling block in my nature. Evil thoughts and a divided heart plague me!” But know that all that evil is under sentence of death.
6. Christ nailed your old nature to His Cross. Crucifixion is a lingering and very painful death. But your sins have had their deathblow. Die they must, even as He died.
7. It’ll be a wonderful moment when sin shall at last expire—when in our natures the tendency to sin will be eradicated! Then we’ll be presented faultless before the Throne of God!
8. “Can that ever be?” asks one. Yes, His name is Jesus, Savior, “for He shall save His people from their sins.”
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. At a restoration conference at an old denominational church in Omaha, Nebraska, everyone in the congregation was given a helium balloon to represent their sin.
2. They were told that during the service, when they felt like letting go of their sin, to release their balloon.
3. The preaching wasn’t very direct, so only a few of the balloons ascended at a time.
4. At the end of the service only 2/3’s of the balloons had been released. 1/3 of the people still retained their balloon [sin]!
5. Are we still holding on to our sin? Do we need God to keep us from falling?
B. THE CALL: WE SHALL BE PRESENTED!
1. There is a great stir in a family when a daughter is to be presented at court before the King of England. Imagine how great the day you and I are presented to the Father.
2. How soon it shall be? We don’t know, possibly tomorrow. Perhaps before the sun rises again you and I may be presented by Christ.
3. Are we ready? Are you washed in the blood?
[This is an altered form of C.H. Spurgeon’s message on the same verses.]
