Glory Be to God - 14

Well, today we come to the conclusion of our series through the book of Jude, a one-chapter epistle of 25 verses written by Jude, who was an evangelist, evidently, in the first century, a brother to James and a half-brother of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His epistle, though short, is powerful and instructive and searching, as we have already discovered.

We began our preaching series on January 15 of this year, and we conclude it today on April 30, after three and a half months, today's sermon being number 14 in the series. Jude concludes this epistle with a glorious doxology, undoubtedly the best known of all the New Testament doxologies, and there are a number, and they are all wonderful. Speaking about serious dangers to the Christian faith through the bulk of this epistle, he concludes with this resounding praise to the power and glory of Almighty God. He shows us something of the glory that belongs to God alone and helps God's people to express appropriate glory to God.

The glory that belongs to God alone and the expression of the praise of His people. We'll look at our conclusion to Jude in verses 24 and 25 in three areas. First, the nature of Jude's conclusion. Number two, the reason for Jude's conclusion.

And finally, the contents of Jude's conclusion. The nature of Jude's conclusion, and here I want to address the question of is this a doxology or a benediction? We often use the two words interchangeably and sometimes call this a benediction and other times a doxology.

So let's try to understand those terms more explicitly so that we can use them correctly and understand them in the proper way. First of all, what is a benediction? A benediction, according to Webster's dictionary, is an invocation of a blessing. Okay. What's an invocation?

We need that as well. Well, invocation is really just a fancy word for a petition, a request, a prayer. So a benediction is a prayer for blessing. An invocation is often expressed at the opening of a corporate worship service.

That would be the prayer at the beginning of the service or close to the beginning of the service where we pray to God to bless His people as they gather together. It is invoking the presence of Almighty God. It is invoking the blessing of Almighty God. It is invoking the help of Almighty God as we gather together. An invocation, it is a prayer to God to do for us that which we need from Him. The best known benediction, at least maybe I should say my favorite benediction, is the one found in number six.

And it has not only the words of the benediction but some information on either side which helps us understand more of what a benediction is. We read in number 622, And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So shall they put my name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.

You get the picture? God said to Moses, These are instructions for Aaron, because Aaron is the high priest and his sons, the priests after him. This is the way I want you to bless the people of Israel. This is the way I want you to invoke a benediction upon them. And he gives the words that they shall speak. And then he says, When you do that, I will bless them. It is a wonderful promise that when the designated messengers of God take up their responsibility in response to the promise of God and call upon God to bless his people, he'll do it.

He will bless his people in response to that appeal, to that prayer. That is a benediction. Benedictions are what most commonly conclude New Testament epistles.

All you have to do is start turning backwards from where you are in Jude. The first several epistles that you come to don't have either a benediction or a doxology. But eventually you're going to come, for example, to 1 Peter, and you will read in the last words of Peter's first epistle, Peace to you and to all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.

What is he doing? He's directing this to the people of God, but it is a prayer for God to do something for them. Peace to you. That is, I am invoking God's peace upon you. I am appealing for God to give you his peace. I am pronouncing as an apostle of Jesus Christ, I am pronouncing God's peace upon you and not only you who are reading this epistle, but all who are in Christ Jesus. A wonderful blessing, short but wonderful blessing. That's what a benediction is. You can keep turning pages backwards from Jude and you'll come to the book of Hebrews. And here's what you will read in the closing verses of Hebrews, if I can get there myself.

Very short, very sweet. Grace be with you all. Amen.

That's a very common one, by the way. You find that wording in many of Paul's epistles. Grace be with you all. Amen. I'm pronouncing God's grace to flow to you as a messenger of God, as an instrument of God's ministry to you. I invoke this blessing. I pray God's blessing upon you. I call down God's grace to be upon you. That is a benediction. All right, we'll stop there.

We could show you many others. So a benediction is the invocation of a blessing. It is directed to the people of God, but with reference to God's blessing them. But then number two, what is a doxology in contrast in comparison with a benediction? Doxology comes from the Greek word doxa, which means glory.

I said we'd talk more about glory at the appropriate time this morning. And so a doxology, by the very meaning of the word itself, means giving glory to God. It is an expression of praise to God.

It is human lips ascribing honor and glory to God. Doxologies are found more commonly within the body of New Testament epistles rather than at the conclusion. And there are a number of them scattered throughout various epistles. I will call attention to one or two, perhaps in the Book of Romans. Romans Chapter 11, right in the middle. Well, not exact middle, but in the body of that great epistle, as Paul winds up those three chapters about the sovereignty of God and salvation, chapters 9, 10 and 11. He concludes chapter 11 with this, For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever.

Amen. That's not a benediction. He's not addressing that to the people of God.

That is a doxology. He is directing honor and praise and glory to God. For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. He concludes the Roman epistle with a doxology when he says, To God alone, wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. To God alone, wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. Interestingly, in the Book of Romans, Paul has both a benediction and a doxology at the closing. In verse 24, he said, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

Amen. The benediction calling down God's blessing upon the members of the church at Rome, but concluding that particular epistle with a doxology rather than with a closing benediction. And we can show you other examples of doxologies at the conclusion of an epistle, but there are only two or three.

This is more rare. So what we're learning is that at times, customarily, epistles conclude with a benediction if they have either. Some of them don't have either benediction or doxology. But if there's one or the other, the vast majority of times it is a benediction, but occasionally it is a doxology. And in those times, it seems like the doxology more or less replaces the benediction. And therefore, it's not surprising that we should tend to conflate them a bit and squash them together in our thinking and in our usage, using either one or the other for an appropriate conclusion to a corporate worship service, because they apparently can be used interchangeably as a fitting conclusion to an epistle.

They can be used interchangeably. Therefore, we would conclude as a fitting conclusion to a worship service. Benediction, doxology, which in the case of Jude, well, it's pretty obvious that in Jude's case, this is a doxology. It is not blessing being invoked in prayer upon the people of God, but it is rather a word of praise and honor and glory by God's people giving honor to God. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.

To God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever, a man. Doxology. Could we, since they do seem to be used interchangeably at times, could we invent a phrase and call this a benedictory doxology?

I don't know if we can do that. It's at the end. It takes the place of a benediction, but it is a doxology. Maybe we can call it a benedictory doxology, but we move on. We've talked about the nature of Jude's conclusion, which is a doxology. But secondly, let's address the question of the reason for Jude's conclusion, or at least the apparent reason. Trying to answer the question, why did Jude, led by the Spirit of God, conclude his epistle with a doxology rather than the more common benediction? Well, the reason, of course, isn't given, but we have the epistle, we have the body here to examine, and we see how fitting this conclusion is. So to answer that question, the reason for Jude's conclusion, let's first of all consider the nature of Jude's epistle, which I just read to you a few moments ago.

I could go back and pick these statements out of a number of verses, but since I read the whole thing, I will not do that. I will simply remind you that Jude's epistle contains strong warnings about dangerous imposters who come in to the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ and try to do damage and destruction. Strong warnings. Jude's epistle contains strong warnings about fatal deceptions, that there are some people who identify themselves as Christians and may even consider themselves Christians who are deceived and who are headed for eternal destruction.

Strong warnings. There are strong warnings about eternal damnation scattered all throughout this epistle. The terrible wrath of God, holy, just, righteous, deserved judgment of God upon those who reject Christ and reject the word of the living God. And that is the nature of Jude's epistle that is filled with these statements, these kinds of statements. So consider, secondly, the likely concerns of Jude's readers when they're reading this epistle. What is going to come to their minds? Well, they're going to be concerned, first of all, about the possibility of falling away from the faith which saves. There seems to be reference, doesn't seem to be, there are references in this epistle to people who are in the church, members of the church, worshiping with the people of God, but they are going to hell and warnings that we not be deceived by them or be deceived like them. And so because of these deceptions and the eternal damnation of those who are in this way deceived, you can imagine that some of the readers, at least, of Jude's epistle or some of the hearers of this epistle, as it is publicly read in various churches, would be entertaining questions, concerns about their own eternal destiny in the light of these warnings. So therefore, consider the need for comfort and assurance.

Jude concludes the epistle with this doxology of praise to God. And what it seems to me that he is doing is saying, yes, you are weak, but he is strong. You are unable to keep yourselves, but God is able to keep you. God is infallible. God is unfailing. God is trustworthy.

If you are trusting Christ, you have no reason to fear, because assurance of salvation is rooted in the character and promises of God, not in the strength of our faith or the strength of our performance. It's rooted in God. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.

To God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever. And so examine yourselves for evidence of true saving faith. The question is not, are you going to stay saved if you are saved or will you stumble and fall? The right question is, do you have saving faith or do you have a counterfeit profession which is not saving faith at all?

And how do you answer that question with any degree of certainty? And all you do is go back through Jude's epistle and notice the characteristics of those with counterfeit faith compared to the characteristics of those who have genuine faith. Are you one of these? Certain men have crept in unnoticed who long ago were marked out for this condemnation. Ungodly men who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Is that you? Then you have cause to fear. If that's not you, then you're in a different category.

And we can go on in this vein. Verse eight, likewise, also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, speak evil of dignitaries. Does that characterize you? Or are you of a different mindset, a different nature, a different attitude? Or verse 16, these are grumblers, complainers walking according to their own lusts.

They mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. Does that characterize you? Then you have reason to fear. Not to fear that you are going to lose a genuine salvation, which you have, but the very real fear that you don't have the real thing. It's an empty profession.

It's an external connection. But you have never truly been born again if your life is characterized by those descriptions. But if yours is more like verses 20 and 21, building up yourselves in your most holy faith, you have a love for the word of God. Praying in the Holy Spirit, you're a man or a woman of prayer. Keep yourselves in the love of God. You are careful to maintain a close walk of communion with the Lord. Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life, you are looking for the return of Christ and for the consummation of his promised salvation.

If those descriptions characterize you, then you have nothing to fear. Now to him who is able to keep you from falling. If you have an unchanged heart that is reflective of unregenerate people, then you are on your way to damnation and you desperately need to be born again. But if you have a new heart, you've been changed, you're a new creature in Christ Jesus, then you have no reason to fear.

Why? Because consider him who's able to keep you from falling. And that brings us now, thirdly, to the contents of Jude's concluding doxology. First, look at it as in a broad overview, and then secondly, in a close examination. To look at these two verses in a broad overview, we notice two things primarily. We notice, number one, that this doxology directs our attention to God.

And secondly, this doxology ascribes attributes to God. It directs our attention to God. Verse 24, now to him. Directing your attention upward.

Now to him who is able to do certain things. Or verse 25 begins the same way. To God, our Savior. It directs our attention upward to God. And secondly, it contains a number of ascriptions that are assigned to God. Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and goes on in that vein. To God, our Savior, who alone is wise and other things that are added to that.

So there are two general characteristics of this doxology. Number one, it directs our attention toward God. And number two, it tells us how to honor and glorify God by giving him proper honor.

That's a broad overview. Now let's consider a closer examination. And in looking at this more closely, I think what we will see is, number one, what God does for his people. Number two, how God accomplishes these things for his people. And number three, how God's people respond to God's amazing rescue.

First of all, what God does for his people. What does he do? He keeps them from falling. Now to him who is able to keep you from falling.

We're stumbling. Either word is an accurate translation. Now to him who is able to keep, that's a military term.

You'll find that quite often from time to time, at least in the New Testament. It's a military term. It means to guard. But of course, it's a strong guard on earth. Probably the strongest guard we can have is a military guard. You want to guard something, put a few soldiers around with appropriate weapons of warfare.

And that's a pretty strongly guarded commodity, whatever it may be. Well, God, of course, is even stronger than any weapons of warfare, any military guard, any number of soldiers. So God is able to guard you infallibly.

Soldiers can guard you substantially, but not perfectly. But consider him who is able to guard you in such a way as to keep you from falling assuredly. So what does God do for his people? He keeps them from stumbling. To keep you from falling, to keep you from stumbling. This is not saying that God keeps us from sinning. It's not sinless perfection that he's talking about.

But keeps us from stumbling or falling away. That's the question, isn't it? We read about these people who are in the church. They are spots in your love feast when they feast with you. They're right there along with the people of God, professing to be Christians, active in the churches in various ways. And yet they go to hell. What happened?

Did they fall away? No, not really. But never fear, because if you're a child of God, God will keep you from falling away. Left to yourself, you would.

Let's be honest about it. I can no more keep myself saved without God's power than I can save myself in the beginning without God's power. I can't save me. I need divine rescue. I can't keep me. I need divine guarding.

But God can and God will. So let's give him the glory. Now unto him who is able to keep you from falling away. So what does God do for his people? Number one, he keeps them from stumbling or falling. Number two, he brings them into his presence. That's what he keeps us from stumbling so we don't go into eternal damnation, but rather we are brought into his very presence.

Now that's more astonishing than perhaps we first realize. And to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. He brings his people into his presence, his glorious presence. Imagine sinners in the presence of a holy God. I think Ryan prayed we can't come into the presence of a holy God as sinners, can we? And yet God is going to bring his people into his presence.

He's going to do the impossible. It's impossible for fallen sons and daughters of Adam to come into the presence of a thrice holy God. Into the God around whose throne, as I think Ryan prayed, the holy angels are crying holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty.

We can't come into the presence of one like this. We are sinful. He is holy. There's no way that we can be brought together into his presence, but God is able to do that. He's able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.

To present, or maybe a better translation, to make you stand. I thought about Psalm 1. Blessed is a man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, for his delight shall be in the law of the Lord, and in his delight doth he meditate day and night. Excuse me if my old King James verbiage sneaks through from time to time.

I lived with the King James and memorized the King James all my life, so I still think in King James language, but here's what I'm getting to. The ungodly are not so, but they are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore this, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the presence of the righteous. The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, the ungodly shall not stand in his presence, but now unto him who is able to keep you from falling, keep preserve you right up until the end, and at the proper time make you stand, stand now in his presence. The ungodly shall not stand in his presence, but his people shall stand in his presence faultless.

That's how we can stand in his presence, faultless to stand before the throne, faultless or blameless. The word that is used there directs our thinking toward the Old Testament animal sacrifices which were to be animals without blemish. That's why in the New Testament we're told that Christ is working on his people and will, God will present us to Christ someday without fault or blemish or any such thing. Now the truth of the matter is that in the Old Testament sacrifices it was shameful, it was sinful to offer to God a lamb or another animal that had an obvious blemish, a crooked leg, whatever, and so you examined the animal to make sure that it was faultless, and yet truth be told there is no such thing as a perfectly perfect, a completely perfect animal, a completely perfect anything. Sometimes we receive a new child into the world, a new baby, and we look it over pretty carefully and sometimes there are concerns, medical defects of various kinds that are going to need to be addressed along the way, but sometimes we look that baby over and with beaming eyes and glowing hearts we say, this baby is perfect, except it's not, but we don't see any obvious blemishes, do we? That's the closest we get to perfection in this life. We find an animal to sacrifice to God in which there are no obvious blemishes. We look at children that don't have any obvious abnormalities and we say that is a perfect child, that's as close as we can get, but just wait till they grow and some of those unseen blemishes begin to manifest themselves. Marty and I appreciate your prayers for our youngest daughter who found out more than a year ago that she has had in her brain a tumor that's been there for years possibly from birth.

They're not sure for how long. It just manifested itself a little over a year ago, a serious blemish but unseen, unknown, until the time she had her first seizure that brought it to attention. Well folks, every one of us are that way. I'm not going to ask you what your blemishes are and don't you ask me what mine are, but we've all got them whether they're obvious or not. But the picture of those Old Testament sacrifices that you couldn't find any obvious blemish was to be an imperfect type pointing to a perfect savior. They were the temporary lambs that were sacrificed until the Lamb of God should come and when the Lamb of God came there would be no imperfections with him. He would be perfectly perfect and had to be a perfect sacrifice without blemish offered to God on behalf of his people, on behalf of those who trust in him, so that his perfection can, in the mysterious exchange of God, be counted to us. And all of our sins, which are innumerable, could be again in the mysterious exchange of God placed upon him on the cross. And there he bore the penalty that satisfied a holy God for all of those sins and there he transferred to us his perfect righteousness, which means now we are perfect in the sight of God and can stand before him perfect someday. So now to him who is able to keep you from falling away and to make you stand faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, faultless before the presence of his glory, before his glorious throne. You remember that so bright was the light, the Shekinah that radiated from God representing his glory and his holiness, that nobody could look on it full on completely without being shielded.

Nobody could do that, no human being could do that and live. Even Moses who was allowed to see what the Bible calls the hinder part of his glory only got a little glimpse of it. And that glimpse was so bright that when Moses came down off the mountain the people said, would you please cover up your face?

We can't stand the light that's shining off your face. That is but the reflected glory of the little bit of hinder glory that Moses saw of God. If Moses had seen all of God's glory he would have been destroyed.

If Moses could have somehow conveyed all of God's glory back to the camp of Israel all of them would have been destroyed. But we give praise to him who is able to guard you from falling away and to make you stand faultless before the presence of his glory. And if that doesn't bring exceeding joy you don't understand what I'm talking about. To be there in his presence with exceeding joy. I would be thrilled to even to be able to be in his presence which I know I deserve not to do.

I deserve rather to be cast into hell. But I would be thrilled to be in his presence even trembling and shaking like a leaf which would be more appropriate but to be in his presence with exceeding joy because there is no condemnation there is no guilt there is no fear there to be in the presence of God almighty in all of his glorious splendor to be there like a child with his father with joy without trembling that is an amazing accomplishment that God is able to do that for hell deserving sinners. So no wonder we ascribe to him glory and praise. Now to him who's able to do all these things let's give him the glory. And how does God accomplish this? Not only what does God do for his people but how does he do this?

And let me summarize a few things quickly. Number one by taking his rightful place as God upon his throne when it says now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling or rather verse 25 to God our savior who alone is wise the wording would better indicate he who is God alone he who is only God the only the only God. At this point I'm going to shift my focus from the New King James to the ESV and I will tell you that there are some manuscript differences here and that accounts for the differences in translations at this point but I want to read the ESV doxology that concludes the book of Jude. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with great joy so far pretty much the same to the only God our savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory majesty dominion and authority before all time and now and forever amen. You'll find a number of things here that you don't see in the New King James.

Don't let that bother you. Some people get all upset about the fact that there are different manuscripts and different translations and they think that there somewhere has to be the one that is the one and most people in America that take that viewpoint today think it is the original King James and if anything differs from the original King James then it's it's wrong it's heretical it's dangerous no no no no no. I applaud your desire you who think that way to preserve God's infallible word and to give it due honor and to to believe his promise that he will will guard and protect his word forever that it is secure but he doesn't tell us how he will secure it and there's many many many many many reasons to conclude that it's not kept perfectly in any one English translation or any other language translation but nevertheless it is preserved.

Say how so? I think I gave you this illustration when I was dealing with this in some other series of sermons I don't remember which one now but let's if we could do this experiment just imagine with me that you're a teacher and you have a class of 30 high school seniors and you're going to dictate to them a page out of a book of literature they need to write down what you read to them aloud so very slowly you read to them the page out of this literature and they write it down. You see for years the Bible had to be transmitted from one scribe to another it wasn't printed you couldn't lock in the translation every new copy was handwritten and was subject therefore to vary the variations. If you took up those 30 pages from those 30 students and carefully examined what they wrote here's what you are almost certain to find and that is no two of the 30 are exactly alike. Every one of them are going to have missed something or added something they thought they heard something they didn't hear but if you will take the 30 and will very carefully compare them you can sort out those differences and come to by the comparison of those 30 come to something that might be an exact replica of what you said or very very close to it. Now what the Bible assures us is that God spoke his words infallibly and inherently in the original language in the original writing. He does not promise that there will be no variations in the thousands literally thousands of copies that have been made of those original documents but we can examine those thousands of copies and fragments and starts look sorting out the obvious errors errors in the copies not errors in the original and come to a pretty close understanding of what he said plus keep in mind that when there are variations they are almost always because some word or phrase was imported from another similar statement in scripture and was brought over to this particular location so that even though that may not be exactly what Jude said originally it's still the word of God in this case that phrase wise the who alone is wise to God our savior who alone is wise wise is not in the oldest manuscripts but it sure looks like what I read to you earlier from Romans chapter 16 remember it's very likely that that's where it came from why is this important let me the doxology at the end of the book of Romans to God alone wise be glory through Jesus Christ forever amen now these scribes were people who copied God's word all day long every day this was their job and they got to know the word of God very well and they they had much of it memorized and they they did what so many of us do when we think we know what it's going to say we just sort of assume that's what it said and so many times when they're writing down it wouldn't be surprising that a scribe would import the word wise from Romans 16 into this very similar doxology in Jude but here's my point does that give us something that's not true is God not wise in other words importing something from someplace else even though we'll we'll amend that if we can see the evidence for it and and get it closer to the original but if that's the case has that brought question upon the faith that was once delivered unto the saints does that tell us something about God that is not true you see that's the nature of most of these differences when you begin to look at it that way you just are amazed at the preservation of of the word of God that God was was able to do this in spite of the imperfect manner in which it had to be done human beings copying copying copying copying copying even when they're sleepy wake up even someone told me that he planned he tends to go to get sleepy i won't mention who but here it is so anyway i've got to hurry on or i won't finish this but how does God accomplish this great rescue by taking his rightful place as the only God by exercising his superior wisdom the wisdom of God probably an import from Romans 16 27 by accomplishing a rescue he is God our savior eight times in the new testament the word savior is attached to the father God God the father and 16 times it's attached to God the son we generally think of God the son as being our savior but actually we should realize that God the father is our savior as well so he accomplishes a rescue by becoming our savior and he does this by the giving of his son picking up that phrase through jesus christ our lord that i read to you out of the esv and so at the end and i know i'm going to have to wrap it up here but at the end jude's could i say sneaks in that glorious consideration of the common salvation that he couldn't write about at the beginning because of the greater need to warn us about imposters when i wanted to write to you about the common salvation i realized instead i had to write about these defectors who sneak into the church but when he comes to the end and does the doxology well i'll be what's he do he points our attention back to this glorious common salvation good job jude inspired by the spirit of God now that only gives me a minute to tell you how God's people respond to this amazing rescue we do so by ascribing honor and glory to the God who saved us we give him glory doxa there's that word again splendor his manifested attributes we call attention to those that gives him glory majesty kingly majesty royal grandeur we treat him like the greatest king who ever was because he is we ascribe to him the majesty that is his dominion or power that means he has absolute control over the world absolute control over the world now i have to keep reminding myself of that i don't know about you i see the things that are going on in the world today and i'm tempted to say lord didn't you notice this lord aren't you aware of that lord would you please stop this and i have to remember he has all dominion he has all power he's in perfect control you know it's easier to say that than to apply it to certain situations in your life i have a couple things that in the last few months have troubled me because God isn't doing it the way i i wish he would but i have to keep reminding myself i'm not God he is and so i ascribe to him dominion full control and power that last one authority which is the right to rule all things he not only has the power the dominion but it's not a stolen power it's not a power that he has taken unjustly just because he's strong enough to do it he has the right to rule all things he has the right to be sovereign in his universe he made it wouldn't be here if he hadn't made it therefore he has the right to do as he pleases this is the divine prerogative right somebody wrote about that we sing it and these glorious attributes and many more are his forever and ever and ever and ever amen so what we take from this number one the importance of praising God this is what God has done for his people are you one of his people how do you respond give him the glory give him the praise i must confess that sometimes i am worried i am concerned about people if i'm where the saints of God are singing the praises of God and i look around in the congregation and there stands someone with closed lips and silent tongue and i don't know the heart but i have to wonder why how can you do that how can you stand there silent when your great glorious and gracious God is being praised and he has done these wonderful things for you how can you keep from giving him praise i don't know how you hold it in unless you haven't been redeemed the importance of praising God and then finally the source of our assurance when we have trouble with assurance as we do from time to time don't look in look up don't look to my faith is it strong enough look to him who is able to keep you from falling look for evidences of his work within you not what you have done but what he has he done within you and when you see the evidence of his work then you know you're one of his children and then you know it's guaranteed now unto him who is able and willing and promised to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God our savior be glory and power dominion and whatever else praise and power forever and ever amen forever forever forever forever forever and may the saints of God swell the chorus on throughout eternity shall we pray father help us to love you as we ought help us to praise you as we ought help us lord to act like those who have been redeemed and if we don't have that heart to do so oh lord help us to recognize our lost condition and to cast ourselves upon the mercy of Christ in whose name we pray amen