VIDEO MINISTRY IS COMING!!!

Good Monday Morning To You!

I hope you are high and dry where you are. As I write this, we are experiencing Tropical Storm Isaac. It is 9:00 pm, and it is very windy and is raining. It should be as close to us as it will be sometime around 2:00 pm Monday. Today (Monday) is supposed to be a nasty day, but on Tuesday it should be away from us. I spent Saturday securing everything at my house, so we just wait and let it pass. As long as we don’t lose power, it will be fine. On Wednesday I’ll send you a mid-week blog just to let you know how we did. We’ve had tropical storms before, and mostly they are just a nuisance. However, we never take these things for granted because hurricanes do not play by man’s rules.

On a note of praise, I want to thank all of you who contributed so generously to our video ministry project. I am pleased to report that we have made and slightly exceeded our projected need in order to reach out all over the world by means of internet broadcast. Very soon you will be able to experience Friendship Harmony wherever you are, whenever you choose. Here’s the best part --- you’ll be able to invite me into your home or office 24/7 and not have to feed me. Isn’t that tremendous?!?! Seriously, the next step is purchasing the equipment, then learning how to operate it. Once that happens, you can hook your computer to your bedroom TV, then tune me in at bedtime. You’ll sleep like a baby! I’m better than a pill. (For our non American readers, please don’t be confused by what I just said. It’s just Pastor Vic’s American humor.)

Yesterday was a tremendous day at Friendship Harmony. Our attendance was slightly down due to the tropical storm as several evacuated. All in all though, attendance was better that I thought it would be. “Oh me of little faith.” I was able to conclude our series in the Book of Jude. These 25 verses are a theologians dream. Only the Holy Spirit could fit so much theology into such a small amount of space. In verse 24 alone you see God’s omnipotence, justification, sanctification, glorification, and eternal security. I very easily could have spent three hours on that verse alone. I had a deacon once tell me that if I ever decided to preach a three hour sermon, he would be right there with me even if everybody else decided to go home. Well, it was quite a bit shorter than that, but I believe the material was covered and justice was done to Scriptures. Below are the notes. Feel free to use them for your personal study, or in your Sunday School or Small Group Studies. Preachers are also free to use them or adapt them to your method of sermonizing.

Jude’s Doxology ©
Jude v 24,25
Encouragement From Jude Series
8/23,24/12
By Victor W. Cooper

Intro: Jude ends with a doxology; words of praise. He has warned believers to the reality of false teachers, has instructed them as to what to watch for, and concludes by praising God for His deliverance from the apostates.

I. v24 He keeps us from falling: falling from or for what?
A. Remember the content of Jude’s letter - false teachers.
1. He keeps us from falling for the doctrine of the false teachers.
2. It comes from the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
3. Without the Comforter there is only sorrow and emptiness. Lament. 1:16 For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me…
B. The word “falling” means “stumbling.”
Jude 1:24a (NLT) And now, all glory to God, who is able to keep you from stumbling,
C. This first part of the verse is not speaking of eternal security as some have suggested.
However, the next part does!

II. He will present us faultless unto the Father. This is justification, sanctification, and glorification all rolled up into one. Jude 1:24b (NLT) …and who will bring you into his glorious
presence innocent of sin and with great joy.
A. Faultless --- unblemished; without blame
B. It does not mean you stand before God as one who has never sinned.
C. It does mean that you stand before Him as one whose sins are covered.
1. They are covered by the blood of Christ.
2. This is called “atonement.”
Easton’s Bible Dictionary …the state of being at one or being reconciled, so that atonement is reconciliation. Thus it is used to denote the effect which flows from the death of Christ.
But the word is also used to denote that by which this reconciliation is brought about, viz., the death of Christ itself; and when so used it means satisfaction, and in this sense to make an atonement for one is to make satisfaction for his offences…

III. He presents us with great joy. Whose joy?
A. His joy --- Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
B. Your joy.--- 1 Peter 1:8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
C. His joy IS our joy.. John 15:11/John 17:13 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. [17:13] And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
IV. V25 All praise is ascribed to God.
A. Verse 25 is a doxology of worship.
B. Verse 25 is the expression of the joy Jude spoke of in the previous verse.
C. Jude restates in different words in verses 24 and 25 what he said in verse 1.

Conclusion: No matter how vile the erroneous doctrine of the false teachers might be, and no matter how sly and cunning they might be in presenting it as true, Jude has taught us that believers can be victorious in this life and definitely will be in the life to come. Jude’s doxology ends on a “Praise the LORD note.”

I trust you will have a good and a safe week wherever you are. Right now the rain is falling pretty steady and the wind is howling through the trees singing, “Jesus is our Lord, and we are totally controlled by Him.” A-men wind, keep on singing! I’ll see you this coming Wednesday for an update; a midweek Monday Morning With Pastor Vic!!