Power and Glory Forever (Part B)

He says glory. How do you preach that word? It's so much in this, so much again theology and this peculiar wisdom, peculiar in that it's only God's on this level as being used here. There is wisdom that we have, of course, there's common wisdom, there's special wisdom. There's the wisdom that God allows human beings to have whether they're saved or lost and various areas of life.

There's wisdom that he gives the Saints and then there's the wisdom of God. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Jude.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear how you can get more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Today, Pastor Rick will continue teaching through the book of Jude and his message called Power and Glory Forever. Jesus preached, he said, do not fear little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. It's what God wants to do. But then why am I so miserable? Because it's the curse of sin.

What am I going to do about it? Get into the word, get into the life, fight it in the faith, not with the experts. Don't side with that team.

Don't be caught with that uniform on. Verse 25, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever. Amen. This is how he ends. He goes out in a blaze of praise to God.

He uses his outburst. It's enough to go back to verse 24, now to him. He sums it up, now to him who is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior. God is the only Savior of souls from hell's judgment.

There is no other. Men, we can save each other from various things, from various troubles, but not the soul. We can be part of the process.

We are part of the process. We have fellowship with God in this very process. Jesus is repeatedly acknowledged in Scripture as the Savior, and the Scripture repeatedly says there is no Savior but God.

Therefore, Jesus Christ is God the Son, equal with the Father. We don't stop. We don't get tired of saying that because the others that challenge it don't get tired of challenging it. Jehovah Witnesses don't get tired of challenging. The Mormons and all the other groups out there, the Unitarians, they don't get tired of challenging his deity, his might, his glory, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 43, verse 11, I, even I am Yahweh, and besides me there is no Savior. That's an absolute statement.

You can't undo that. Hosea echoes it. Hosea 13, 4, you shall know no God but me, for there is no Savior besides me. Titus, chapter 2, verse 13, in agreement with those verses from the Old Testament, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. You can't twist that without flat out lying, which Watchtower has no problem doing. John's Gospel, chapter 4, here it is said by a witness, and they said to the woman, now we believe not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world. Whoa, whoa, whoa, the Old Testament says there is no Savior but God. Well, that's right.

Okay, then I withdraw my whoa, whoa. Second Peter, chapter 3, verse 18, grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen. Now we've been saying all along, Jude has been echoing much of what Peter said, as though he is a protege of Peter to some degree as men go, which is wonderful.

And here we see him taking the lessons that Peter gave him and applying it to his time, his audience, in a very powerful way. And so may we contend earnestly for these truths. This is what we're supposed to do.

Not get caught up. A thousand may fall at my side, ten thousand at my right hand, but it shall not come near me. The world can do what they do. They can drop like flies to my left, to my right, but it will not come near the message that I preach. I will still preach Christ. I will not be taken off of this. We hear about heroes of the faith preaching Christ on crashing airplanes or sinking ships.

And that's the way to do it. It is not enough to say that Jesus Christ is Savior. It is not enough to say he is the only Savior. You must be able to say he is my Savior.

That is receiving the Gospel. Always the church, an individual believer, must be on guard against deniers of this basic truth. I should point out that the nearly inspired version, the NIV, or the not inspired version, the NASB, some of the other translations in the New Testament, well I don't share their source materials. I disagree with their source materials.

I don't want to go into that. But I should say the New American Standard Version, which is a very good scholarly work, I just again, the source materials and I, we part there. I only point this out because some of you may use this NASB and they've added words to this. They're not wrong, but I'll read them to you.

The only God and our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. So it's a little different. It doesn't take anything away. It does leave out some the wisdom, for example, but that's okay.

So there I've commented on that. He continues, who alone is wise? Here in verse 25. Wisdom sees further than knowledge. We have to understand that. It's one thing to know.

It's another thing to know what to do with what you know. And God's wisdom, of course, sees farther than any man's knowledge and not with the wisdom of the world. And this statement, again another superlative, who alone is wise, it is saying there's no equal, there's no one on this level of wisdom. Who alone?

He's far separate from all others. If any of you lack wisdom, as James tells us, then ask God who loves to give. Wisdom is not something that you get at one time and you've got it forever. It's mine.

You don't possess it. We're dependent upon it for God. Solomon is a good example of that. God had given him wisdom. Solomon abused and neglected it at the same time as a lesson for us all to don't be like that guy.

He says glory. How do you preach that word? It's so much in this, so much again theology and this peculiar wisdom, peculiar in that it's only God's on this level as being used here. There is wisdom that we have, of course.

There's common wisdom. There's special wisdom. There's the wisdom that God allows human beings to have, whether they're saved or lost in various areas of life. There's wisdom that he gives the saints. Then there's the wisdom of God, which again is high and lifted up. This word glory, again, summarizes the splendor of God. My God is glorious. There can be certain other things that a jelly donuts have a glory to them, but not on the level of God. We need to be clear on this. If I owned a donut shop, I would have a glorious jelly donuts.

Anyway, you say, where would you get this? Of course, it's all over scripture. One of my favorite places is King David. King David just was such an emotionally in-tuned man. There are many emotional people, and they're out of tune. They're like a bad instrument or something.

It's just, man, that's not right. But David was in tune most of the time. When he writes about it, it is amazing. We're going to close with a verse from David, but until we get there, 1 Chronicles, this is David. He's saying to Solomon, you're going to take the throne now. I'm going to give it to you.

I'm getting too old for this. I'm heading home. I want you to be a good king, and I want you to build a house of God that I prepared for with all my might. I love that, because I feel that I've prepared with all my might. That was my complaint. I've prepared with all my might, and this is all I get back.

Well, what did you expect? It's your might, not mine. So he says this, 1 Chronicles 29, verse 10, 11. Therefore, David blessed Yahweh before all the assembly, and David said, Blessed are you, Yahweh, God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever. Yours, O Yahweh, is the greatness, the power, and the glory, the victory, and the majesty. For all that is in heaven and in earth is yours, yours is the kingdom, O Yahweh, and you are exalted as head over all.

How eloquent, how articulate is that? You see where Jude gets these things from. Where did David get it from? He got it from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit of Christ in David, long before the virgin birth, because Christ is self-existent. It comes with being God and majesty, which belongs to glory, of course.

It includes, the majesty is included in this glory on this level. Uncreated greatness. If you've ever played sports or a game against someone who is what we would say a professional, and you're not, you know that there's no match. They're way ahead of you.

If it's in basketball or checkers, whatever it could be, cards, whatever, it's like, wow, it's no match. Imagine how God is when it comes to these words, these, you know, glory and majesty and dominion, in a complete different class. God's glory and majesty is uncreated. It is eternal.

Eternal past, eternal going forward. Isaiah saw a bit of it. He wasn't the only one, but he writes about it in a very wonderful way. Isaiah chapter 6 verse 1, in the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. You can't match that. No king on earth could do this. He continues, above it stood Seraphim. Each had six wings. With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, with two he flew. And one cried to another and said, Holy, holy is Yahweh of hosts.

The earth is full of his glory. It's the same one that's able to keep me from falling and to present me faultless with exceeding joy. It's the same holy one. The one that Isaiah said, woe is me, for I am undone. The one that Daniel fell dead before because he felt life leaving him in the presence of this God, as with John.

The same one presents me faultless. The same one intercedes for me. This is what belongs to the righteous, and this is how Jude is finishing his letters. After all I've said about these troublemakers, let me tell you about your salvation, who it is that holds onto it for you. You are kept by him. None of this doubting around. I don't know if I'm saved.

Why don't you know? Is Jesus your Lord? Do you believe he died for you, rose again, sits on the throne, is coming again? Do you believe that? Yes, I do. Now what is all this fussing about? Don't you get tired of it?

Yes, I do. Me too. I mean, I have my pity parties too, but I learned that from Jeremiah. One of my Bible teachers taught me, he said, Jeremiah, when he had a problem, he told God. And I said, I could do that. I'm very good at that. I can complain to God better than anybody.

Just as long as I know my place when I do it. Dominion, it is the prerogative of God to rule. That is wonderful, because what would it matter if he had all this glory and majesty, but had no power to pull it off? But he does.

He has the authority also. John's gospel, all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made, that was made. He said that about Jesus Christ. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. And he goes on to say, all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made, that was made. Christ is the Creator. Where you read in your Bibles, in the beginning God created. It's in the beginning, Christ Jesus.

That's who it is. Yahweh of the Old Testament is Christ of the New Testament. It doesn't exclude the Father, it includes the Father and the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit hovered over the earth. And the Hebrew word is there, he agitated, he moved it, he was doing stuff to it. Ephesians 3 verse 9, God who created all things through Jesus Christ.

See right out there, right out there, to expose the cults when they manipulate the scripture. So who should have been in charge with Israel when they said there's no king in Israel? Well, who should have been the king? Who should have been in charge? The one who has dominion, God, Yahweh, Jesus Christ. Who should be in charge of mankind? Christ.

And he is. It just tolerates those who don't want to receive it. Who should be in charge of you? Well, the born again know who that is. And power, he says. That's the authority. Not only is he glorious enough, not only does he rule, but he has the authority to do it. It is right.

It is correct. It is his right. Romans chapter 1, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God. Falls within his dominion, the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.

Why would anybody want to tamper with that? Why would anybody want to come along and say, well, where it says salvation for everyone who believes really doesn't mean that, it means this. No, it means that. It means just this.

And if you start messing with sentences like that, there's no end to messing with sentences like this. And you bring upon yourselves a swift destruction on that day. And so we would counsel you, understand what the scripture is saying as we started off with Jeremiah, that he understands and knows me. I know who you are, Lord Jesus. You are the patient one. You are the gentle one. You are the lamb of God. You are the lion of Judah. I know who you are because you have shown me who you are.

And when you've shown me who you are, you've shown me so much about myself and other people and Satan and hell and angels and all these other things too because you have the power. And it is our work to get lost souls, to get this into their thick hearts, these very wonderful things about our God. The seeds that we plant often fall on hard soil by the wayside.

It's compacted and it can't get in there. And so Satan comes and he plucks them up. We don't stand there weeping over the seeds that got plucked up. We plant more seeds. We look for other ground.

And where there are thorns and thistles, we burn them out of the way or we get a bush hog, we get them out if we can. We go to work. And when you go to work in your vocations, you know that, oh, I've got to do this today. I've got to do that today. That's how it is with the faith. I've got to keep my devotions up. I've got to read, look up this. I've got to check the maps. I've got to get to church to hear the message of the word, to be revived, refreshed, to hear verses that I've lost sight of that maybe the pastor will say something about a verse that I loved many years ago and I lost sight of it and he says it and I got it again.

That's the process. It says, both now and forever. It's an undying authority, an undying dominion, an undying glory and splendor, power and glory that belongs to him.

It does not diminish. There are no gauges on God. Well, he's only at 50% today. He's at 100% all the time. He's not at 1,000% because there's no such thing. All right.

That's all the math I know. Anyway, the attributes of God are beyond challengers. Challengers cannot come alongside. I've got some of that. No, you don't.

Not like this. Psalm 97, verse nine, for you Yahweh are most high above all the earth. You are exalted far above all gods. The idea is not that there are other gods, that there are suggestions that there are other gods because there are not. There are principalities. There are powers. There's spiritual wickedness in high places, but they are not self-existent. They are not eternal, omniscient, omniscient. They're not all knowing.

They're not everywhere at the same time, ubiquitous. They are finite, and they will be judged and dealt with. Ephesians 1, far above all principality and power and might and dominion in every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.

I think that's pretty thorough. I think that theology of Paul is my theology. Man's theology I'm really not too interested in, but I love biblical theology. I love the study of God's word, theo and logos. I love the study of God's word. Billy Sunday said, I know, if you don't know who Billy Sunday is, his dad was Billy Saturday.

Okay. Well, Billy Sunday was a fireball preacher. Well, he had some little goofy things about him. He knew the gospel and he was a baseball player.

Billy Sunday. Yeah. So he preached and he said, I know about as much about theology as a squirrel knows about ping-pong. You see, he just had this way to say these things that made you go, hmm. Yeah. I've heard you preach, Billy, and you know another quote from Billy is, I know the devil exists because the Bible told me and I've done business with him. You see, that's the kind of stuff.

They just say, there's a man of God that has been on the battlefield. And anyway, he's a good man to familiarize yourself with if you get the chance. But how could you have any time you're too busy listening to my old messages?

Well, is that presumptuous? Well, let's go back to where we are both now and forever. And then he says, this now and forever. If I run late in messages, it's because there's always more to say about God's word.

There's always more to apply. It never ends. He says, amen.

That's how he closes his letter. It's like he's saying fact. This is a fact. You want to fact check me?

Go right ahead. Amen. Who is the great amen of the Bible? It is Jesus Christ.

He is the great perfect one, the trustworthy one. Revelation 3, verse 14. And to the church of the Laodiceans, every Christian should know about that church, correct? If you don't know who the Laodiceans were, you better get familiar with them real fast because they turned the stomach of the Lord in a negative way. They were not thrilling.

They were sickening because of what they were doing. He says, and to the angel, to the messenger, that would be the pastor, to the messenger of the church of the Laodiceans. Right. These things says the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I get goosebumps reading that.

I don't always get them, but I got them right now. Evidence and facts should lead to faith. Non-facts should not lead to faith, and that is the dividing line between Christianity and everybody else. Theirs is hearsay, tradition passed down, facts not established. That's why Peter again said we have the more sure word of prophecy. That prophecy is fact. You can't get away from it. Fact is a stubborn thing. It refuses to go away. We're prophesying all that we're seeing now, globalization, the mark of the beast through the chip, the cashless society.

Few of you have cash on you right now. Fulfilling that prize is going to just increase these things. They're all going to intensify. Fact is to form our decisions. And so when he says amen, he's saying everything I told you is a decision that you have made.

It is truth that you believe. So I was talking to one of my pastor friends. In our conversation, in exchange, the pastoral conversation with another pastor is five words and a few verses. Five words and a few verses. And so I said, you know, I defy, I defy not not praising God.

I struggle with this. I'm not in the mood to praise the Lord, because we think that praise is merit-based. I have to have some event to say, oh, thank you, Lord. Our praise is deeper than that. And so I said, I've been, I'm defiant, as Paul and Silas with wounds on their back sat in that dank jail and sung hymns and praises to the Lord. They defied it.

That's what I want. And then he countered. Well, no, wait a minute. I countered.

It doesn't matter. I came out better. He's telling his congregation the same thing. So as we're talking, I'm saying to myself, and he quotes this verse to me, and I've said to myself, I'm going to use that tomorrow.

He sends me a text last night, I'm using your Acts 1625 for my closer. And I text back, I'm using your Psalm 1656 for mine. And what it is is David, King David, his struggles and things he'd had and did not have in life, he still said, Lord, I'm satisfied with what you've given me.

I'm at peace with the pleasant places. Psalm 16, verse five and six, oh, Yahweh, you are the portion of my inheritance and my cup. You maintain my lot.

That is his portion, his allotment, what God has given him in this life. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Yes, I have a good inheritance. I'm satisfied with what you've given me. I'm not saying the grass is greener on the other side.

The grass is greener on my side. I see where it comes from. I will be satisfied with this. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Word of God, living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of the soul, the spirit, the joints, the marrow.

And that's why we want our young believers to stand in the face of the experts and say, I will follow the Lord Jesus Christ before I follow anybody else. I'll close with this verse once again. Oh, Lord, you are the portion of my inheritance and my cup. You maintain my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places.

Yes, I have a good inheritance. Thanks for listening to Cross Reference Radio today. Cross Reference is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you're interested in more information about this ministry, you can visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.

You'll find more of Pastor Rick's teachings available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. By doing so, you'll become aware of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio in iTunes, Google Play Music or your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning more from this series, Truth, Love and Testimony here on Cross Reference Radio.