Victory in the Ring! - Part A

Paul said you can be more than a conqueror. And the key to that victory is realizing who is in your corner. Who is your coach?

Who is your trainer? Do you realize that David, when he wrote Psalm 144, spoke about the Lord as the one who trains my hands for war. What a victorious life you have in Christ. But before we begin, we want to invite you to be a part of a life-changing journey. Lenya and I are taking a group to Israel in 2022 and we want to invite you to join us. We'll visit places like Nazareth, the Jordan River, the Dead Sea, and Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount and the Garden Tomb. And that's just a fly-by look at the itinerary.

Find out more about the trip at InspirationCruises.com slash C-A-B-Q. Thanks, Skip. Now, here's a resource that will nourish your soul with God's amazing truths. Here's what Norm Geisler said about the book Tactics.

There is no better book to equip Christians to think clearly. Here's Skip Heitzig on the need to engage in active spiritual warfare. You'll never fight God's battles from a sofa.

You'll never contend for what really matters by just cruising in your La-Z-Boy all day. You're going to have to decide to get up as part of the house and join the fight. Become a contender for biblical truth with Fight for the House, a six-message series through the book of Jude with Skip Heitzig. This teaching series on CD equips you to get in the ring to defend the gospel and guard against false teachings. And it's our thanks when you give to connect more people to the truth of God's word. And when you give $35 or more today, we'll also send you the book Tactics by Gregory Kochel to help you speak the truth about Christianity with confidence and grace.

Call 800-922-1888 to give or visit connectwithskip.com. Okay, let's get into today's teaching. We're in the book of Jude as we begin our study with Skip Heitzig. You've all heard the name Muhammad Ali. He's considered one of the greatest fighters of all time. In fact, the Associated Press said that he was the greatest heavyweight champion of the 20th century. Not only was Muhammad Ali a great fighter, he was pretty skilled at self-promotion, if you know what I mean. He was very confident, let's put it that way.

You could probably use other words to describe him, but confident would certainly fit there. And he liked clever axioms that he would come up with for his audience. For example, in 1965 when he fought that classic match between he and Sonny Liston, he said that he was going to float like a butterfly but sting like a bee. And he said that Liston's hands can't hit what his eyes can't see.

And he was just good at that kind of stuff. Of course, he stepped into the ring against Sonny Liston and he won the fight. But not everybody who steps into the boxer's ring wins the fight. There's always the other guy, the guy that gets knocked out or the guy that loses by points. And we call that person the loser. One boxer boasted this way. He said, during my boxing career, I was the second best boxer in the country. I fought over a hundred fights and I came in second every time.

Now that's called spin. That's a nice way of saying I'm a loser. I lost every fight that I engaged in. What I want you to know is you do not have to come in second. You do not have to be the loser.

In fact, you can be the champion. You should be able to look back on your life without regret. Too many people live their lives, fight the good fight, but they look back over their lives with deep regret. Wish I could have done things differently.

Wish I could have done things better. Now I'm going to move you from 1965 back a little bit to 1954, before I was born. There was a movie, a classic film, see if any of you have heard of this, called On the Waterfront. Remember that film, On the Waterfront?

Black and white movie, starring Marlon Brando, who played the role of a fighter, a boxer. And there's a famous line, he's in the back seat of the car, he's talking to his brother Charlie, and he says to him, I could have had class. I could have been a contender. What he meant is, I could have been somebody in my fighting career, but I gave it away.

I sold out. And he's looking back with regret. You can be more than a contender. You can be a victor. You can be a conqueror. In fact, Paul said you can be more than a conqueror.

And the key to that victory is realizing who is in your corner. Who is your coach? Who is your trainer? Do you realize that David, when he wrote Psalm 144, spoke about the Lord as the one who trains my hands for war. God is your trainer.

Trains you to fight. By the way, did you know the term throwing in the towel is actually a boxing term? What it means is, if the trainer in the corner feels like his man in the ring is going to get pummeled, or something bad is going to happen, if he wants to end the fight, he'll throw in the towel. And when he throws in the towel, the fight is ended. Your God will never throw in the towel. He will enable you.

He will help you to go another round. Now, I'm going to take you back even further than 1965 or 1954, back to the mid-1800s, and I'm confident nobody here can remember that. But in the mid-1800s, there was a boxer, American boxer, named Jim Corbett. He went by the name Gentleman Jim. Great name for a boxer, right? Gentleman Jim Corbett. And Gentleman Jim Corbett, in the mid-1800s, was the heavyweight boxing champion for five straight years.

Somebody interviewed him and asked him his secret. And these were his words. He said, fight one more round. When your feet are so tired that you have to shuffle back to the center of the ring, fight one more round. When your arms are so tired that you can hardly lift your hands to come on guard, fight one more round. When your nose is bleeding and your eyes are black, fight one more round. When you're so tired that you wish your opponent would crack you on the jaw and put you to sleep, fight one more round. Always remembering that the man who fights one more round is never whipped. He's always battling one more round.

I want to show you today how to go one more round. That will take us to the last two verses in this little book of Jude, where we have three promises, three promises that God gives to us. He'll protect us. He will preserve us. He will present us.

Let's look at our text. 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.

Amen. Now what I would like to do is take you back to verse 25. I'm going to sort of begin backwards. I'm going to begin with God as our Savior, our protector, our deliverer, because that's where salvation begins. Everything begins in our walk with the Lord the day we are saved. And so I just want you to look at verse 25, to God our Savior, who alone is wise. Now let me give you a few words about these last two verses. The last two verses of the book of Jude are what we call a doxology. And you maybe have heard the term doxology in reference to a song that we sing, the doxology. The word doxology comes from two Greek words, doxa, which means praise or glory, and logos, which means word.

A doxology is a word of praise, or a word of giving God glory. It's a short little hymn of praise. And that's what we have in verse 24 and 25.

It's a two-verse utterance or word of praise. One author said, this, the one in Jude, is universally recognized as one of the fullest and most beautiful doxologies in all of Scripture. Now you get some of these little doxologies smattered throughout the Bible. For example, the book of Psalms, there are five doxologies. The whole 150 Psalm book is filled with praise, but Psalms is divided up into five distinct sections, five books of Psalms in 150, and those five books all end with a doxology. In the New Testament, we also have several doxologies.

In fact, you can find 21 of them to be exact. Just a little short hymn of praise, followed by that word, Amen. But Jude's purpose in including this doxology isn't just to give you a nice ending.

It's not just to give you a liturgical form, a doxological procedure. Rather, I believe he wants to assure his readers that God is going to help you go one more round. It's Jude's way of saying, it's always too soon to quit. And he does that by moving the battle to a higher level. The battle that we go through on earth. The battle, in this case, the book of Jude, all the things he talked about with the apostates, those who fall away from the faith, that battle. He moves the battle on earth to the heavenly realm.

And I want you to see that. These closing verses are all about God. They're not about them. They're not about the apostates. They're not about you and I. They're about God.

Now, most of this letter has been about them. That's the purpose of his writing. I wanted to write to you about our common salvation, but I thought it necessary to tell you to contend earnestly for the faith, once for all, delivered to the saints. That's verse 3. Then he launches in to talk and all about those guys, them, these grumblers, etc.

I want you to see how this letter flows. Go back to verse 4. He says, For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation. Verse 8, Likewise also, these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, speak evil of dignitaries. Verse 10, But these speak evil of whatever they do not know. Verse 11, Woe to them, for they have gone in the way of Cain. Verse 12, These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves.

They are clouds without water. Verse 14, Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men. Verse 16, These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts, and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.

The whole book is about them. This short little letter is about them, the apostates, the defectors, the detractors, those who fall away, and some that are still among the congregation. But then, Jude pivots slightly, and he goes from them to you, his audience. Look at verse 17, But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 20, But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. Now in verse 24, there's another pivot. Now to him, who is able to keep you from stumbling and present you faultless, before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory, majesty, dominion, power, both now and forever.

Amen. You see the flow? First he points outward to them, then he points inward to us, now he points upward to God. And he's saying, he's ending with our trainer, the one who is going to see us through, make us get through this. Now I want you to notice something in verse 25. Notice he puts the word God next to Savior. We know that Jesus is our Savior.

He saves us from sin. He is regularly called Savior in the Bible. Here Jude puts God next to Savior to show us that Jesus is God. In fact, some translations even add the phrase through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is Jude's way of equating Savior with God. Jesus the Savior is God in human flesh.

Now, hold that thought. We learned in our very first study of this little book of Jude that Jude himself was related to Jesus. Physically, he was the half brother of Jesus. That Jude was one of the children of Joseph and Mary. And we also learned that Jude did not believe that Jesus was the Savior at first. But later on, he became convinced that Jesus was the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world.

And we looked at that. After the resurrection of Jesus, Jude became a believer. Now I think that this adds weight to Jude's testimony.

And here's why. Jude watched Jesus up close. Little Jude was at the dinner table with Jesus for years.

Little Jude was out playing whatever they played in those days in the streets of Nazareth. He watched the whole life of Jesus unfold. And then when Jesus Christ grew up and started His ministry, Jude heard about it. Maybe even heard a sermon or two. We know that Jude tried to rescue Jesus. He thought he was crazy because he wasn't eating properly.

We remember that little story in our first study of this book. But maybe he even saw a miracle Jesus did. But he did not believe until after the resurrection. Now I say this adds weight to his testimony. Here's why. How many of us would ever say of our brother, he's God?

I've had three older brothers. I wouldn't even say they're godly, let alone God. So for Jude to equate Jesus, his half brother, as being God, our Savior, is monumental. But that's where it all begins for us, when Jesus becomes our Savior, when He saves us, delivers us. That's why I say He protects us. It's that salvation that protects us. Now let me color this in a little bit.

I'm going to fill in the blanks. Did you know that the Bible speaks of salvation three ways, past, present, and future? We call these the three tenses of salvation.

I just want to briefly explain that. We are saved past tense. We have been saved from the penalty of sin. The moment you believe in Christ, the penalty, the eternal penalty, is lifted from off your life. We have been saved from the penalty of sin. Paul said, If we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in our heart, we will be saved. So that's past tense.

Done deal. If you've trusted Him, you are saved. But there is a second aspect in which you are saved. You are being saved.

Present tense. Not from the penalty of sin, but now from the power of sin, the grip of sin. Hopefully, the more you follow Jesus, you sin less and less. You're not perfect, but you sin less and less. And the reason you're not perfect, we know that because it says in John 1-9, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He's writing to believers who still blow it, still sin, and still need confession. But He is saving us from the grip, the power of sin.

So past tense from the penalty, present tense from the power, there's a third tense. One day we will be saved from the very presence of sin. We won't be able to commit a sin. We'll be in glorified bodies in the presence of God. We'll get to that in a minute here in this last little couple of verses. But that is when our salvation is complete. Now I'm maybe belaboring this point because I want you to remember that you are saved if you are.

Remember that when you step into the ring to fight. Remember when you're in a battle, I'm saved. I'm saved.

When you're being attacked by outsiders, when you are the subject of dissenters and bloggers and cancel culture warriors and tweeters and Instagramers who want to make you think like you're a loser. You're not the loser. You're the winner. You're saved. That battle has been won. They're the losers if they're not saved. Not you.

You are the winner. In Romans 8 32, one of my favorite verses in the New Testament, He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things? If He was willing to die for you, to save you, to bring you eternal protection, then there's more coming.

He's not going to stop with that. He's going to freely give you whatever you need, which takes us to the second. After He protects us, now He preserves us. And I take you back to verse 24. The beginning of this doxology, Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling. The word stumbling means apostatizing. That's what He's been talking about this whole book.

Right? He's been talking about those who had fallen away, those who had walked away, those who had defected from the faith. And Jude is saying that does not have to happen to you.

You don't have to be a casualty. He who saved you will be He who sustains you. He keeps you. This happens to be one of the great promises in Scripture. And the reason He is so adamant that He will keep you is because He was the one who saved you. You had nothing to do with salvation. All you did is accept it, receive it, believe.

So if you had nothing to do with that, then you'll really have nothing to do with this. He who saved you is the one who keeps you. Now, let's just kind of look at it from two different angles. The road to heaven has always been dangerous from a human perspective. Our journey from earth to heaven has always been a dangerous journey.

There are potholes in the road. There's litter and there's roadblocks. There's all sorts of things that happen to the Christian. We have trials. We have temptations.

We have accusations. We can be subject to false teaching. So it seems to be a very perilous journey because we are special targets of Satan. Even Paul, when he spoke to the people at Lystra, Iconium and Antioch in the book of Acts, we are told, strengthen the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith saying, we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. Speaking about all the potholes in the road, from a human perspective, this is a dangerous journey. But from God's perspective, this is a very safe and secure journey.

That's Skip Heiting with a message from the series Fight for the House. Right now, we want to tell you about a special opportunity you have to take your knowledge of the Bible to a deeper level. If you're ready to study God's word beyond going to church and personal Bible study, you're ready for Calvary College.

Take your learning and your life's purpose to the next level with an education in biblical studies. Registration for the 2022 spring term is open right now. Classes happen onsite at Calvary Church Albuquerque and online. Classes like biblical counseling, a study of the end times, and the history and authenticity of the Bible, plus theological studies in the doctrine of man, sin, and salvation. Calvary College partners with Veritas International University and Calvary Chapel University, so you can earn an accredited undergraduate or graduate degree, or simply increase your knowledge of God and His word. Your application for the 2022 spring term is available right now.

Classes start January 10th. Apply today at CalvaryChurchCollege.com. That's CalvaryChurchCollege.com. As believers, we're called to stand for and defend God's truth.

That's why studying His word is such a priority. And it's why Connect with Skip Heitzig transmits truth over the airwaves and into cyberspace. You can help keep these Bible teachings you love going out to you and so many others with your generous gift today. Just visit ConnectWithSkip.com slash donate to give now. That's ConnectWithSkip.com slash donate. Or call 800-922-1888.

800-922-1888. Thank you. And come back tomorrow as Skip Heitzig shares about an important and victorious declaration God has made about you. You may be filled with fault, but God says, I am declaring you, pronouncing you as faultless.

That's justification. He makes a declaration because Jesus took our sin and God treated Jesus like you and I deserve to be treated so that God could treat us like Jesus deserves to be treated. Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the crossing. Cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection. Connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.