A 2-verse Sermon Part II

 Last blog, I shared the following verses from Jude, with the premise that a full sermon easily derives form these two:

"24 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, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and [a]forever. Amen."

"24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling..."

I stumble all the time, but G^d is able to KEEP us from SIN! Think about it. We count on all sorts of things to keep us from sin: self discipline, rules, more rules, procedures, and others. But G^d is able! He wants the best for us, and His Word is invaluable--but we must both read AND heed! Thanks be to G^d that He keeps us from stumbling...even more than we already do.

"...and to make you stand in the presence of His glory..."

Think about this a minute. Think of all the cases in the Scriptures where someone came into the presence of G^d.

Here's jsut one example, Genesis 17: "Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him,

“I am God Almighty;
Walk before Me, and be blameless.
2 “I will establish My covenant between Me and you,
And I will multiply you exceedingly.”

3 Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him..."

And Lev 9: "23 Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting. When they came out and blessed the people, the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. 24 Then fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the portions of fat on the altar; and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces...".

And even the emissary of the L^rd can elicit this response. See Josh 5: 13 Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?” 14 He said, “No; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the Lord.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, “What has my lord to say to his servant?” 15 The captain of the Lord’s host said to Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

And trust me there are more like 1 Kings 18:38-40, 1 Chronicles 21:15-17, Ezek 1:28

"...blameless with great joy...".

Consider, Ex 3: "5 Then He said, “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He said also, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God."

And we'll wait to do this last verse in the next post.

25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and [a]forever. Amen.