In the sermon 'Preservation and Perseverance of the Saints,' David Green explores the themes of apostasy and the enduring faith of believers through an analysis of the Book of Jude, particularly focusing on verses 24 and 25. He highlights the persistent threat of apostasy, which has been present since the first century, emphasizing the need for Christians to discern true faith from false teachings. Green identifies apostates as individuals who deny the gospel of Jesus Christ while often masquerading under Christian terminology. He warns against the influence of various groups and movements, including Roman Catholicism and charismatic sects, that diverge from foundational Christian beliefs. The sermon underscores the importance of God's grace in preserving believers, affirming that salvation and perseverance are not dependent on human efforts but on the sovereign work of Christ. Green assures listeners that through Jesus, believers are kept from stumbling and will ultimately stand blameless before God's glory. The sermon concludes with Jude's doxology, attributing all glory and authority to God, and emphasizes that true believers are distinguished by their acknowledgment of God's sovereignty, setting them apart from apostates.

Go ahead and grab your copy of God's Word, and let's go to Jude. Jude, and This will be, as far as what I know, my final message from this chapter. So, for review's sake, Let's go ahead and read beginning verse one. We'll take our text from the last two verses, verses 24 and 25. Jude, beginning verse one, says, Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are the called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ, May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.

Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you exhorting that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. Now I want to remind you, though you know all things, that Jesus, having once saved a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe, and angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper abode, he has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them having indulged in the same way as those as these in gross sexual immorality and having gone after strange flesh are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. Yet in the same way these men also by dreaming defile the flesh and reject authority and blaspheme glorious ones." Verse 9, but Michael the archangel when he disputing with the devil was arguing about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a blasphemous judgment, but said, The Lord rebuked you.

But these men blaspheme the things which they do not understand, and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed. Woe to them, for they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have poured themselves into the error of Balaam and perished in the rebellion of Corinth. These are men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts, when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves, clouds without water, carried along by winds, autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, un-uprooted, wild waves of the sea casting up their own shame like foam, wondering stars for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever. But Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam also prophesied about these men saying, Behold the Lord came with many thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts, and their mouths speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of their own benefit.

But you, beloved, must remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. That they were saying to you in the last time, there will be mockers following after their ungodly lusts. These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly minded, not having the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And on some who are doubting, have mercy.

For others save, snatching them out of the fire, and when others have mercy with fear, hating even the tunic polluted by the flesh." Verse 24, 25 being our text today, Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, 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, might, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen. And so this is the infallible, the inerrant, the all-sufficient Word of the living God. The letter that Jude wrote to the saints who were living there at his time, but this word has been preserved for us by the Holy Spirit and for good reason. As we have considered this, this great epistle from Consider this great epistle from Jude, this epistle that some have called the Acts of the Apostates.

We've seen some of the terrible deeds, some of the terrible things that the apostates were doing in their day, some of the characteristics of the apostates and indeed even some of the things that the Bible says about the terrible ending of the apostate. As we have mentioned upon several occasions, and I'll ask again just one more time as a review, what's a good way to remember who the apostates are? Who are the apostates? Who can give me a simple definition of an apostate? I know, I know Brother Barry knows.

Can someone else give me a good definition of what an apostate is? You all are too shy or something. They deny something. What do they deny? Brother Barry will tell them.

They deny the gospel. That's it. That's it. They deny the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that's the problem of the apostates.

And as we've seen in John and in Jude, and in other places, even in Paul's writings, This was a major problem in even the first century, and it's still a problem today. These folks, they may use terminology similar to what Christians do. And so they may come in and they may use the name of Jesus Christ. They may talk about the gospel, but it's a different gospel, and it's a different Jesus. They may talk about church.

They may even have a church service similar to what we are used to. Many of them carry Bibles and those sorts of things. And so this is why we are told to be careful of them and to have no fellowship with them. We cannot categorize their systems as Christian. We cannot have fellowship with them as Christian because they have denied the very foundations of the Christian faith.

Jude and John, same thing, but rather than giving to their readers a list of names of groups, they gave us characteristics. Characteristics of what these people were like. And this is very helpful because the names have changed through the centuries. I hesitate to name names in this series, but as I looked over my notes, I realized that I did name some names already. I mentioned the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses.

They are important to know and to identify as apostate groups, but the reality is that they aren't the only ones. And I want you to realize that, that they are not the only apostate groups that are out there. There are some that people put under the umbrella of Christianity sometimes. There are some that want to join in with what people call the ecumenical movement, where this idea that everybody can join together in one great big happy Christian family, but as one preacher said, a group of rotten eggs will never make a good omelet no matter how clever the arrangement. You have to be careful about this stuff.

And I'm talking about movements like Roman Catholicism. The Roman Catholic Church has departed long, long ago from the gospel of Jesus Christ, so much so that it is an apostate religion. Now I do not mean to say that everybody within Roman Catholicism is lost. God can save people within Roman Catholicism, and in fact, he has. I've known preachers and other individuals who were raised Catholics, and they came to know the Lord, but it was not as a result of Catholic preaching and teaching.

You understand that? There's charismatic groups out there that that preach a different gospel. They've gone apostate, liberalism, and so on and so forth. I'm talking about men like the Pope of Rome, Benny Hinn, Joel Osteen, and such the like. They are spewing out a false gospel.

And in these days, just as it was in the first century, there is a danger of apostasy even creeping in to the Lord's churches. In their day, Jude was concerned, John was concerned, Paul was concerned about people's associations as these apostates traveled around the Roman Empire. In our day, they don't even have to travel around because thanks to the internet and TV and so on and so forth, radio, they don't even have to travel. A lot of times we let them in willingly and unguardedly and we say, oh this preacher sounds good or this preacher looks good and we turn him on or we listen to him and before we know it our minds have been corrupted by these apostate preachers. Sadly we even hear of those who have drifted into full-blown apostasy.

So sometimes you'll read about someone who was a Baptist, and then all of a sudden they've gone off into some apostate religion whether it be Roman Catholicism or something else. You say How in the world did that happen? Well, they weren't grounded in the truth and very possibly were never saved. We ought not to be surprised about this, This rise in apostasy and this problem that we have with apostasy. Because the Bible warns that not only was it going on in the first century, but even going on through into the last days, this is going to be a problem.

Over in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, 2 Thessalonians chapter number 2, this is all introductory material by the way, we'll get to the text here in just a moment, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 1, 2 and 3, Paul wrote to the church of Thessalonica and he says, Now we ask you brothers with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you be not quickly shaken in your mind or be alarmed whether by a spirit or a word or letter as if from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for is not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed the son of destruction." Who? Verse 4 says, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the sanctuary of God, exhibiting himself as being God. And so, within the church at Thessalonica, they had a problem. Some people were saying that the day of the Lord had already come.

And Paul says don't let anybody deceive you. It's not going to come until there's a apostasy comes first. They falling away as the King James translates it. This great falling away, this great apostasy, is when the world falls into full-blown apostasy, which I believe will happen during the Great Tribulation period, at the time when the whole of the world, including Roman Catholicism, or maybe even being led by Roman Catholicism, and liberalism, and so on and so forth, will lead the world into the worship of the Antichrist and and the false prophet. Now, I'm not gonna get into all the eschatology of it all and all that sort of thing, but, just know that things are ramping up towards that.

How in the world will they deceive people and trick people and all that? Well, I think we're beginning to see some of those things when we begin to see world leaders use the internet and AI for their own purposes. You know it's it's funny and we laugh at it whenever President Trump puts Chuck Schumer with a sombrero and that sort of thing, but you realize that there are some terrible things that are going to come out of this and it's not going to be good whenever a world leader or a country can say, oh well this war is happening over here and we done bombed, we done leveled London or whatever, and the whole world believes it. Or when they say, hey, this is going on, and look at my great power, what I did, and the whole world falls for it. I'm not saying that everything that's prophesied in Revelation is AI But I do believe that there is some trickery that's going to be happening by the false prophet and the beast and some of it Is going to be technology I think Because people are already falling for that stuff.

It looks so real No fall for anything Just think about how the world right now, even some Christians, will fall for fables. And I'm talking about things like the Bible clearly says that there was a worldwide flood That happened about 4, 500 years ago. And God spared only Noah and his family. But there are some who read that, and they say, oh, that's just a local flood. And then they'll fall for the stories that the atheists will tell that says things like well we find these shells and these fossilized fish up here on the top of this mountain because at one time, millions and billions of years ago, there was an ocean, an ancient ocean, and they tell some story that there's nothing except man's word, but they'll believe man's word over God's word.

Well, apostasy is a real problem, And again, is there hope for the apostate? Absolutely there is. Whether Roman Catholic or Mormon or some other religion, yes there is. Remember we read it there in verses 22 and 23 last week, and on some who are doubting have mercy, and on others save snatching them out of the fire, and on others have mercy with fear, hating even the tunic polluted by the flesh." And so the hope for the apostate, whether he's Jew or Gentile, whether he's steeped in Roman Catholicism or some other religion, whether he's the Jehovah's Witness knocking at your door, whatever it may be, the hope for him or her is Jesus Christ. The mission field isn't only to the druggie who's on the street.

The mission field isn't just to the atheist, although it is that, but understand it is also to the man or woman who thinks they're on their way to heaven through some wrong gospel, some apostate religion, some works religion, faith that they have. And these people are sometimes the hardest people to reach. Of the hardest people to reach. They believe, many of them, that there is some great things waiting for them on the other side because of what they've been taught, because of what they have learned and been indoctrinated into. But God's grace is amazing.

It can save even those who are in apostate religions. Look at what God did with the Apostle Paul. His zealousness with the Pharisees. And God got a hold of him and turned him around to that dead man who was on his way to hell and made him alive, set him on a rock, and he became one of the greatest missionaries, perhaps the greatest missionary that ever lived. God can save anyone.

We need to, where we have opportunity, be bold to speak of the truth. Snatch them out of the fire as the Bible says. Well, that's not all the good news we find in this chapter. Remember, we looked at a few sermons ago about the terrible ending of the apostate. If there's no repentance, they have an awful ending coming to them.

We saw that in verses 5 through 7. As Jude drew from examples from the Old Testament, we know that the ending is not well for the for the apostate who does not repent. And that's terrible, terrible to think about, terrible to consider, but it's a truth. It's a reality. That sermon is online for those that missed it.

It's from March 1st. But for the child of God, there is a grand truth, a truth that is found here in verses 24 through 25. A truth that is not just found on the pages of systematic studies of Bible doctrine. It's a truth that is found on pages of Scripture and Jude wrote about it long before ever there was ever a nickname called Calvinism. Long before it was even called the doctrines of grace.

And that is the perseverance and preservation of the saints. And that's what I want to look at here in verses 24 and 25. This is good news for the child of God. It says, Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, 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, might, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.

When we read about the apostates and the dangers of them, our hearts may have been discouraged to think about that. Nobody wants to think about the terrible ending of those who die in their sins. Nobody finds great joy in that thinking of loved ones or friends or neighbors, relatives who may be on their way to an eternal fire. But it's reality, And so we look at it, pages of Scripture. But our hearts may have been discouraged thinking about that.

When we read about what the Bible says here in verse 21, when Jude wrote, to keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life, That may have caused great anxiety to us, even though I tried to preach it in a way that it wouldn't, but even then Sometimes we think about how can we be up to such a great task as that? It's a tall order to fill. How can we keep ourselves in the love of God? Even when we started this series out in Jude in verse 3, when we read about contending earnestly for the faith, which was once for all handed down to the saints. How can we do that?

That's also something to think about and to consider. How can we be able to do that and do it right? In the flesh we can't. We can't do none of it. And here, in the final verses of this chapter, we learn that our hope is secure, that our future is settled, and it is not grounded on anything that we could do or have done.

God preserves His people so that they will both keep and contend for the faith. That we will be kept secure from stumbling, and that we will stand in the presence of his glory blameless with great joy. Doesn't matter where you come from, how you start the race, what matters is how you finish it. When you start the race with Christ, what I'm talking about when I say it doesn't matter, it does matter as long as you started with Christ, but it doesn't matter where you come from. You may have been raised in a Christian home or you might not have been.

You may have come from the apostates or you might not have come from the apostates. Whatever it may be, however way you started, as long as you start with Christ, you will end the race well. The race well because from start to finish Our salvation is in Christ. We will end up in heaven. The phrase, to keep from stumbling, here in our text.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, that phrase there, according to Barnes' notes, means here to preserve from falling to sin, from yielding to temptation and dishonoring their religion. This word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It means properly, not stumbling, as of a horse. It is only God who amidst the temptations of the world can keep us from falling. From falling.

Over in Colossians chapter 1, that word blameless that we read in in in our text. It's used also in Colossians chapter 1. Verse 22. Let's start with verse 21. And although you were formerly alienated, and enemies in mind and in evil deeds, but now he reconciled you in the body of his flesh through death, but in order to present you before him wholly and blameless and beyond reproach." You see, formerly, he says, you were alienated, You were enemies.

In order to present you before Him, holy, blameless, and beyond reproach, we reconciled the body of his flesh through death. Jesus, Jesus, He's the author and the completer, the finisher of our faith. Jude, make sure that as he writes, He says that, 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 In the presence of his glory now understand something if you're saved today in the eyes of God through Jesus Christ, we are justified now. But realize that we're not in our final state yet. What I mean by that is that we stand before God as he says here, blame was holy, justified.

But we know as we look in the mirror, we know as we live from day to day that there is a struggle with the flesh here and now. We're not in our final state yet. We're not in the glorified state as of yet. Jude is writing about Here is that final state, I believe, when He says in the presence of His glory. A time when we'll be in our glorified bodies, presented blameless, free from sin in the presence of our glorious Savior, Jesus Christ in heaven.

He speaks of that time as being a time of exceeding joy. Oh, What joy will fill our souls to one day be in the presence of God, free from sorrow, sin, death, disease, when faith becomes sight and heaven will be our home. The text we looked at in Colossians gives us some idea of how this is happening or how this will happen, how this is possible. But I think 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 in verse 21 gives it even more gives us even more clarity here. 1 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

In the context here, he says in verse 20, So then we are ambassadors for Christ as God is pleading through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. So we beg for others to be reconciled to God. He says He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. In this passage, Paul summarizes the heart of the Gospel.

The doctrines of imputation and substitution are expressed here like no other single verse on the cross. When Jesus was there, he died as a substitute for his people. But understand something, He was treated as a sinner. Not that Jesus was a sinner, but He was treated as a sinner. You see, through it all, Jesus remained the holy Lamb of God, sinless and perfect Lamb of God.

But He took upon Himself our sins, your sins, my sins, and died there. And he was treated as if he was guilty of all the sins of all his people. And God's wrath was poured out on him in such a way that the just requirement was met for those for whom he died. And in this wonderful transaction, as Jesus was treated by God as if he by God as if he were a sinner. Sinners, who have not yet been made righteous until glorification are treated until glorification are treated as if they are already righteous And all of this is based on our justification and our glorification.

Our sanctification, too. All of this is based on the grace of God and the righteous deeds of Jesus Christ. You see, this Gospel is a Gospel of grace. It's free, but it costs. It costs Jesus.

We're saved not by works, at least not by works on our part, but we're saved by the finished work of Jesus Christ. In all of this, Jesus alone is the hero. You and I were a big fat zero. The only thing, as one preacher said, the only thing that we brought that we could possibly have brought to our salvation was the sin that necessitated it. That's all we had.

Titus chapter 3. I'm going to read it to you. Titus chapter 3 verses 4-7. But when the kindness and affection of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not by works we did in righteousness, but according to his mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior." Verse 7 says, so that having been justified by his grace, we would become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. If the Lord didn't save me, the Lord doesn't save you.

If the Lord hasn't saved you, if the Lord hasn't saved me, then I can't be saved, and you can't be saved. And as we think about this, it's also true that if he doesn't hold me, If He doesn't hold you, if He doesn't preserve me, if He doesn't preserve you, then we're not going to make it. There will be no perseverance. How can we reconcile the sovereignty of God with human responsibility, well we reconcile it at the cross. And we reconcile it knowing, beloved, that there is no perseverance without preservation.

If we're not preserved, there is no perseverance. You'll run out of steam long before you get to the end of the race. You see, Jesus promised this perseverance and this preservation many times, and there's lots of scriptures we could look at, but let's just look at John chapter 3. John chapter 3 and verse 16. And verse 16.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." You say how does this how's this about preservation or perseverance? Well, notice the promise of eternal life. If you have a salvation where you could be saved today and lost tomorrow, that's not eternal life. That's Temporary life that's anything but eternal life Only a sovereign God can grant eternal life, and that's what we have, thanks to Jesus Christ and his finished work on Calvary's cross. And that's why Jude, as he closes this up, he wrote these words in verse 25 of our text, to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, might, and authority before all time, and now and forever.

Amen. Jude didn't close this thing out by saying, look at how good we are compared to the apostates. He didn't puff up his readers to say, look at how much better we are than them. That's not what he was doing. If you read Jude's epistle and it puffs you up, you've read it wrong.

You see all the glory, all the majesty, the might, all the authority is to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord before all time now and forever. In this passage We find the oneness and sovereignty of God shown as well as the view that Jesus is a direct manifestation of God through whom we have a relationship with God. He alone is the one who is worthy to be praised. Not the one that we see in the mirror. We can't puff our chests out.

We can't Say how good we've done, praise ourselves, or think how great we are. That's how great He is. But in this, this great doctrine of perseverance and preservation, This is what separates a true believer from an apostate. Not only will we persevere, not only are we preserved, but also we acknowledge who God really is and we bow before Him in worship. And that ends this epistle from Jude.