Jude 24-25: Able to Keep

Good morning again. We'll be reading out of the book of Jude verses 20 through 25, concentrating on verses 24 and 25.

In your pew Bibles, it's right before the book of Revelation. I don't know the page number. Here now,

God's inspired word. But you beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the

Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life and have mercy on those who doubt.

Save others by snatching them out of the fire to others. Show mercy with fear, hating even the garments stained by the flesh.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy to the only

God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time and now and forevermore.

Let's pray. Father in heaven, we simply ask that you would bless the preaching of your word. We pray

Lord God right now that you would get me out of the way and that we would hear the voice of your son through the preaching and through the words that are spoken today.

It's in Jesus name we pray. Please be seated. So we're right at the end of the book of Jude and here

Jude finishes his letter with one of the most powerful and memorable benedictions of all of scripture.

And to me, this should become the anthem for every Christian, right? Can you think of other memorable anthems or music that you've listened to that gets people motivated and inspired?

You know, I got to be honest, every time I hear the national anthem, I am motivated. I'm inspired. Some people, younger people, you probably are inspired by Stronger by Kelly Clarkson, right?

Or maybe if you're older and a little bit more sentimental, maybe it's Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World, right?

You're moved by these songs, these songs. And we talked about words this morning, how words can change us and affect us.

The words and the music change and move us. Now, if I were to compare Jude's benediction to a song, don't think this is a cliche, it would be the theme from the movie

Rocky. And you know the song, as soon as you hear it, all of a sudden you get a bit bolder, a little bit more confident, ready to fight.

And what a picture this movie is of perseverance. No one expected Rocky to last for maybe a round or two.

In fact, the fight was set up as a stunt by his opponent to publicly humiliate him. And deep down,

Rocky knew it. Along the way, he meets a girl and life takes on new meaning. Love enters the picture.

He has something to fight for, his dignity, and now a girl by his side. This is the quintessential underdog story.

One that finds us rooting for him to win. One that we can all find ourselves in at some important time in our own life.

It's the David meets Goliath story. One that everyone can relate to in some way. And you cannot watch that movie and come away uninspired.

In some fashion, it moves you. There's something about this movie that taps into our souls and evokes hope, courage, perseverance.

I still like watching it. It never gets old. Even though I know what's going to happen, I still find myself rooting for him anyway, as if the end might change.

Right? And oddly enough, I wouldn't want it to if it did anyway. So you know the story.

They play the anthem. He trains. He fights. He gets knocked down. They play the anthem again.

He gets knocked down. He gets up. They play the anthem again. They play the anthem for the next 17 reiterations of this movie.

Right? We're up to what? Rocky 17, 18. I don't know. But what we need to realize is that song becomes a character in that movie.

Because that character is played in every single one of them. It's the same song. It moves us.

In fact, to me, it sounds much like the history of the church and our charge to contend for the faith. So we're just about ready to close out the book of Jude.

And we started out by learning who Jude is. He's the spiritual brother of Jesus. And we learned who the church is.

The called, beloved, and kept. And what she receives. Mercy, peace, and love. We're told to contend for the faith against the creepers, perverters, and deniers.

We've learned that in the same way Jesus did not save those who did not believe in the wilderness, he will not save the creepers, perverters, and deniers either.

And this is the same Jesus of the new covenant. He did not change or become more loving.

He wasn't grumpy in the old covenant and becomes kinder and gentler now. No, he's holy and just.

And the creepers, perverters, and deniers will be kept in change for judgment while God's bride will be kept by him in his hand and for his glory.

Jude gave us Old Testament examples of Cain, Balaam, and Korah as those who are reserved for uttermost darkness.

He cited Enoch who also prophesied against these ungodly men who were doing ungodly deeds in an ungodly manner.

The church was called to persevere, to pray, and to keep themselves in the love of God, to wait for mercy, and to show mercy.

Jude reminds us that all of these things were foretold by the prophets of old and also included in the predictions of the apostles for the last time.

And now we finally get to Jude's doxology. These are his last words to this church and his final eruption of praise.

Verse 24, Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only

God our Savior through Jesus our Lord be glory, majesty, dominion, authority before all time and now and forever.

It's almost as if he's remembered the original reason he was writing this letter. Remember earlier he said,

I'm eager to write to you about our common salvation, but I find it necessary to write to you to contend with the faith. But here, in this short and celebratory benediction, he gets everything he wanted to say about our common salvation condensed down into one glorious God -exalting sentence.

These are his final words to that church and they are memorable ones. They are weighty ones.

They're also an echo, a repeat of what Jude began the letter with in verses one and two.

It's what's called an inclusio, which is a literary device by which a repeated theme both introduces and concludes the passage.

Although they're separated by a bunch of lines, they're unified together to complete the thought.

Where Jude starts by identifying the church as the beloved and kept of God, he now concludes with God being able to complete the calling, to complete the loving, and to complete the keeping that he described in verse one.

He is able and he who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it. This God has the power to call his people out of darkness into his marvelous life, into fellowship with his son

Jesus, making them a royal priesthood and a holy nation. They are the call of God.

He has the power and desire to love them to death by certifying the payment for their sins with Jesus on the cross.

They are beloved of God. And this God has the power to keep them from falling, to keep them from stumbling, and the power to present them blameless and to do it with great joy.

They are the kept of God. This is a sovereign God with great power and great love.

A God whose purposes will not be thwarted. We are reminded several times in the scripture how

God protects those who are his. Second Thessalonians 3 .3, he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.

First Peter 1 .5, who through faith are shielded by God's power. Revelation 3 .10,

I will also keep you from the hour child that is going to come upon the whole world. Commentator Tremper Longman says it like this, with precise calculation,

Jude employs the language of sovereignty. The saints need not be shaken by the sobering instances of God's judgment in history if in fact they have a genuine desire to be established in the faith.

This benediction presents us a picture of a sovereign God who accomplishes all that he intends to do by establishing and preserving his church on earth to take dominion over his creation.

This is the work of a sovereign God apart from man's help and despite man's sin.

Now we co -labor with Christ for sure, but it's not by our might nor by our power, but by his spirit.

The structure of benedictions including this one typically consists of three parts.

They begin with a person addressed, they are followed by an expression or two of praise, and then conclude with a time element.

So here in verse 24, Jude begins by addressing a person, namely God. He then expresses praise for two things,

God's ability in keeping us and his ability in presenting us. Jude finishes by addressing

God a second time as the one who is timeless, eternal, stretching as far back and as far forward as anything could ever be.

So let's first look at who Jude addresses this benediction to in verse 24. Jude begins by directing our attention to him who is able.

In other words, he directs his praise to God, the triune God. God is the

Father, God is the Son, God is the Holy Spirit. Remember, Jude is a bondservant of Jesus Christ who is

God in the flesh. But Jude doesn't just isolate one person when he addresses

God, he's addressing the Godhead, all three, which inherently includes

Jesus. Each person of the Godhead has a part in the salvation of his church. The Father appoints, the

Son accomplishes, and the Holy Spirit applies. Please note who the benediction is not directed to.

Mankind. Could you imagine if the benediction was directed towards mankind?

It might sound something like this. To him who is unable. Unable to do anything good and to present you sinful and wicked before a holy

God so that you get what you deserve. That would certainly disqualify it from being called a benediction.

It would actually be called a malediction. It would be bad news because putting any confidence in fallen humanity or in the flesh is futile, wasted, hopeless.

The trajectory of this benediction points us to the only thing that is able to save us,

God. The term benediction is a compound word in Latin. Any homeschoolers?

All right, good. Bene meaning good and diction meaning speech. That's where we get the word dictionary from.

So benediction means to speak well of or well wishes, good words.

Addressing it towards man and not God would be misdirected, aimed at the wrong person. Jude knows that God is able and man is not.

Jude cannot boast in himself or something that he's done. It's in God and God's ability to keep him that his boast must be anchored.

Again, pay attention to the God -centeredness of his benediction. Remember Jesus is Jude's only master and Lord and here he's acknowledging the power of Jesus to keep him and the whole church from falling.

In other words, he's acknowledging Jesus's high priestly prayer in John 17 where Jesus asked the to keep them in the name of God, not losing any of them and making them one with him.

Jude is acknowledging the power of Jesus as the God -man who's undertaking what he said he would do. Jesus said,

I have come to seek and save the lost and he will not fail in that mission. He's doing that in this epistle and in this congregation right now.

And what the heroes of this letter need to know and what we need to know is that God is able to do this.

He is able to preserve his children through any and all circumstances, through any difficulty, through anything that you might think is going to disrupt you.

All things together for good. He is able to keep you so that you will contend for the faith that you've been given to by him.

Scriptures have a lot to say about God's He's able to save James 4 .12, the only lawgiver and judge who was able to save and destroy.

He able to save from the furnace of the king, Daniel 3 .13. Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of your hand.

He's able to save from the lion's mouth, Daniel 6 .18. Has your God whom you serve continually been able to deliver you from the lions?

Daniel said, oh king live forever. My God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouth. They haven't harmed me.

He's able to save from all uncleanness, Ezekiel 36. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses.

He's able to save from our sins, Matthew 21. He will save his people from their sins. He's able to save us from death,

Hebrews 5 .7. Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death.

He's able to save to the uttermost, Hebrews 7 .25. He's able to save those to the uttermost who draw near to God through him.

He's able to help the tempted, Hebrews 2 .18. He is able to help those who are being tempted. He's able to make us stand,

Romans 14 .4. It is before his own master that he stands or falls and he will be upheld for the

Lord is able to make him stand. He's able to build us up, Acts 20 .32.

I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance.

He's able to keep us from evil. He's able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to him.

We sang that. He's able to keep that which we commit to him, 2 Timothy 1 .12.

I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard it until that day. He's able to perform his promises,

Romans 4 .21. I'm fully convinced that God was able to do what he promised. He's able to do more than what we ask,

Ephesians 3 .20. To him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think. He's able to make grace abound, 2

Corinthians 9. And God is able to make grace abound to you. He's able to subdue everything to himself,

Philippians 3 .21. We'll transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body by the power that enables to him to subject all things to himself.

He's able to raise the dead, Hebrews 11 .9. Abraham considered that God was able even to raise him,

Isaac, from the dead. And finally here in Jude, he is able to keep us from falling.

Do you think the scriptures have anything to say about God's ability? We can actually see

God keeping people from falling in the Old Testament with Abimelech, the Philistine king. And then also with David who's a believer.

In Genesis 20, Abraham's on his way to Negev and he stops in Gerar and meets

King Abimelech. Abraham lies to the king and tells him that Sarah's his sister. So Abimelech takes her as his potential wife.

And it's here that God comes to the king in a dream. He's an unbeliever. Then God said to Abimelech in the dream, yes,

I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart and it was I who kept you from sinning against her.

Therefore, I did not let you touch her. So in this instance, God keeps an unbeliever from sinning, from touching

Sarah, another man's wife, for his benefit and for the benefit of Abraham. He kept

Abimelech from falling. This is an act of common grace for sure. And then in 1

Samuel 25, David's passing through Paran and he needs some sheep. And he asks his men to ask

Nabal for some of his sheep, but he refuses. Nabal says, who is David? Who is the son of Jesse?

David doesn't take the news well and tells his men to strap on their swords. My version says David's Italian.

Right? That's the AUV. All right, let me continue.

David doesn't take the news well and tells his men to strap on their swords. It's here where Nabal's wife,

Abigail, intercedes. She brings food and makes a plea to David for forgiveness. So David refrains from killing

Nabal and then recognizes that this was by the hand of God. This was God's doing through Abigail.

He says, the Lord has restrained me from hurting you. So God restrained the actions of David from incurring a greater guilt.

He kept David from falling. David even writes of God's preserving power in the

Psalm, Psalm 56. I will render thank offerings to you for you have delivered my soul from death.

Yes, delivered my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.

So we see that God can restrain man's hearts from evil, both believers and unbelievers, and keep them from sinning.

However, these instances are acts of mercy. God does not have to do this.

And we can see it most clearly in Romans one. God has made his existence known through creation, such that man is without excuse if he denies

God's existence. And when you persist in this denial, this suppression of truth, you become futile in your mind.

You exchange the glory of God to worship the creation. And God, who restrains the evil in our hearts, will give you over and permit you to reap the consequences of your suppression.

This is the opposite of God keeping you. This is him permitting you and giving you over to what your heart wants.

Three times in Romans one we read, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.

God gave them up to dishonorable passions, exchanging natural relations for those that are contrary to nature.

God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. But do you realize that if you're called beloved and kept, you've received mercy and have been kept from those things?

God keeping you and restraining you from sinning is an act of mercy, which is exactly what

Jude tells us in verse two. You receive mercy, peace, and love. There is not a one of us here in this room that is not capable of what

Paul has described in Romans chapter one. Your salvation is a gift and a function of God and you receiving mercy is part of that package called your salvation, earned by Jesus and not to be taken for granted.

Consider your heart apart from God's mercy. You could be filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetedness, malice, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossip, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

Though knowing God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, you'd not only do them, but you'd give approval to those who practice them.

It's the creepers, perverters, and deniers that are devoid of God's spirit that do not receive mercy, that God gives up to the desires of their own hearts.

God doesn't keep them from sinning, he keeps them for judgment. This highlights the difference between the mercy and justice of God.

Mercy triumphs over justice. Can you see why Jude's benediction is an outburst of praise directed toward God for what he's done for us?

That could be us. Are you able to keep yourself from falling? Are you able to present yourself blameless before God's presence?

Then you need to trust in the one who is able. You need to entrust yourself to the

Savior. You need to turn from your sin, trust in Jesus as Messiah, and sever all ties to anything else you've ever trusted or are holding on to.

There is salvation in no one else. There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

But not only that, in addition to being able to keep us from falling because of his mercy, in Jude 4,

God is able to present us faultless. So consider this, there's not only a suppression or a restriction of our sin, there's a reception of his righteousness, of his good standing.

We're not standing in our own good deeds or our own good righteousness, trusting in ourselves, and we're not entrusting ourselves to another human being or to an organization or to a religious system.

We're entrusting ourselves to God himself, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the

God Almighty, and he is able. He's the only one who is.

Commentator Peter David says it this way, God presents us or literally stands us before his presence.

While present is the better translation, the Greek reader would not miss the contrast of standing and falling.

They are different aspects of the same thing. If one does not fall in this world, then one stands before God, and both standing and being without fault are products of God's action.

So there are two things that God's doing in this verse. He's keeping you, there's that word we've heard all throughout our series in Jude, and then he's presenting you, making you stand, or causing you to stand, as some other translations say.

He is able to keep you, and he is able to present you before God. Now we've talked about the word keep throughout this epistle, so I want to focus a bit more on the other word that Jude uses here.

He uses the Greek word hestimi, to present or cause you to stand.

And it's here because of Jesus that the church will be presented, made to stand before God, and kept standing.

Hestimi. You might ask, well who has to stand before God? Romans 14 .10

says we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. But if you're in Christ, you will be able to stand and remain standing before the thrice holy and righteous

God of all the earth, who cannot look upon sin without his wrath being poured out. And you'll remain standing after the verdict is rendered.

We will stand innocent, blameless, without spot or blemish, because this is what

Jesus does. He is a perfect savior. He makes us stand. It's his perfect work on the cross that enables this, and keeps us this way.

Ironically, the word for apostasy, the root word for apostasy in Greek is hestimi.

Right? It's the same word for stand. However, it's preceded by the prefix apo, which means away.

Apostasy. Apohistimi. So apostasy literally means away from standing.

To move away from, to back off, to abandon. That's the position of the creepers, perverters, and deniers in Jude's epistle.

They've rebelled, they've abandoned, they've apostatized from standing with Christ, while the called, beloved, and kept are kept standing.

Apostasy is the deliberate repudiation of a belief that you once formally held. An apostate is one who thus abandons

Christ and Christianity by their words and or their actions. They will not stand in the truth and they will not remain standing at the judgment.

Where the book of Acts is known as the Acts of the Apostle, this letter of Jude is known as the

Acts of the Apostates. They have denied their only master and Lord, and they too are being kept, kept for destruction.

But listen, so would you and I have done the very same thing had Jesus not kept us and made us stand.

Jude reminds us and warns us, be merciful to those who doubt. Paul tells us, therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

If you understand this warning, you will understand the magnitude of this benediction and sing it with abundant heartfelt gratitude.

You do not stand by your own power or your own goodness. He makes you stand because of his power and his goodness.

Remember the condition you were before Jesus changed you. It's like the lepers in Leviticus, Leviticus 13.

It says, the leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let his hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, unclean, unclean.

He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone.

His dwelling shall be outside the camp. But for Jesus, we like the leper would be standing far off, yelling unclean, eventually living alone and living outside the camp, exiled from God's church and God himself.

When you hear this benediction and you know that you're one of his called, beloved, and kept, you will rejoice and sing like Isaiah.

Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust that I will not be afraid. For the

Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. Sing praises to the

Lord, for he has done gloriously. Let this be made known in all the earth. Shout and sing for joy,

O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. The gospel isn't just good news.

It's great news. God doesn't just present you. He presents you blameless, without spot or blemish.

Listen to what the prophet Malachi says to the priests who present defective offerings. Malachi 1, 6 -8, the

Lord says, O priest, you who despise my name. But you say, how have we despised your name?

By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, how have we polluted you?

By saying that the Lord's table may be despised. When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil?

And when you offer those that are lame and sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor.

Will he accept you or show you favor, says the Lord of hosts? Jesus, as our great high priest, does not offer a lame or sick animal up to God, nor does he offer us in our own condition up as the sacrifice.

He offers himself up, the perfect sacrifice. And with that sacrifice of himself, those who are in him, whom he calls loves and keeps, become legally perfect, declared righteous, spotless, and blameless before God.

He justifies us before the Father because of his sinless perfection. And we read

Numbers 8, verses 1 -19 this morning. And in this passage, we see the

Lord telling Moses to set apart the Levites for service to God, purifying them with water, making atonement for their sins, then bringing them before the tent of meeting to meet the

Lord. That term, bringing them to the tent to meet the

Lord, is the word hestamine in the Septuagint. It's the Greek word to make us stand, to present us.

Moses has purified them. He made atonement for them, and now he's presenting them, making them stand before God so that they can serve him in his temple.

What an honor. And listen, as these men are being separated from the rest of the tribes, the rest of the people, do you know what

God says of those priests? They're mine. I could think of no better words for my ears to hear out of God's mouth than they are mine.

He is mine. She is mine. You are mine. The Lord would go on to say,

I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and his sons from among the people of Israel to do the service for the people of Israel at the tent of meeting.

In the same way, the church, the royal priesthood, is given to Jesus in John 17, purified by him, atoned for by him, and presented by him so that we will stand and remain standing and serving in God's presence, not be cast out.

What a privilege. We can hear Jesus himself say about God's people in his high priestly prayer, all mine are yours, and all yours are mine.

As God's bride, called, beloved, and kept, we get to hear those words. They are mine. There can be no greater comfort for your heart when you recognize what your sin deserves and yet have been kept by God, made to stand in his presence, holy, blameless, without spot, and then hear like Solomon says,

I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine. Now in knowing that, is there anything that God can't ask the church to do?

Is there anything he can't ask you to do that you can say no to? No. This is why we've been kept.

Like the priests who do the service for the people of Israel at the tent meeting, you are saved to serve.

You bring glory to the one who loves you and saved you by serving him and others.

We take dominion by serving. Have you considered there's no greater calling on earth or in heaven than to be called

God's bride, God's child? What other company can you work for or something that you could do on earth that can be compared with the calling that God has on your life?

If you're a Christian and you're not constantly amazed or in continual awe of your station before God, you need to remember who you used to be and what you were saved from and then thank

God for rescuing you and then serve him and his people with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Contend for the faith. Jude will finish up the next verse 25 with,

To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever.

It's at this point that Jude, the Baptist minister, abandons his three -point sermon for more of a bump stock approach.

He can't help himself as the descriptors of his gracious and glorious God come tumbling out of the thankfulness of his heart.

Again, he focuses the church's attention on God through Jesus as Lord. He ascribes a list of superlatives to God, almost like a short systematic theology of God's powers to be displayed here on earth.

Glory, majesty, dominion, and authority. And this is not Jude just hoping that God possesses all these things.

It's his declaration of these divine manifestations with the understood word all in front of them.

To the only God be all glory, all majesty, all dominion, all authority, all glory.

Pointing us to the weightiness of God, his significance over all things, both temporal and eternal.

All majesty, pointing us to his kingliness and the dignity of his being.

All dominion, letting us know the vast expanse of his rule and reign. All authority.

There is no authority higher than his, and none can hold God accountable to themselves.

And Jude closes with before all time and now and forevermore. Oh yeah, he's eternal too. He had glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before this, during this, and he will so after this.

He's without beginning or end. He is being. So to sum up the epistle of Jude, he describes two sets of peoples, the called beloved kept and the creepers, perverters, and deniers.

Both are kept by God, one for glory and one for destruction. Both have been prophesied of the bride for her wedding supper and the ungodly for their judgment.

One sings the praises of God, the other grumbles and boasts in themselves. One builds themselves up in the faith, the other tears others down and causes divisions.

One keeps themselves in the love of God, the other keeps themselves in the love of self and sensuality.

One group contends, the other group pretends. Both have assurance, again, one for glory and one for destruction.

And while Jude describes two different sets of people, he doesn't describe two different gods, one from the old testament and one from the new.

No, God describes the one true God who doesn't change. This God is the one who fiercely keeps and guards his bride.

He does what Adam failed to do and just as fiercely he destroys all of his bride's enemies.

This benediction of Jude is the anthem of God and his power over all. They are

Jude's last words to the church and they are memorable, they are powerful. And just like when you hear that theme song from the movie

Rocky and you get a little bolder, more confident, ready to fight, the same thing you should feel with this benediction.

Why? Because it's God who's telling us these things. This is powerful. If this doesn't move you, nothing will.

Now, the movie Rocky ends with him losing the fight and yelling out, yo, Adrian, I did it. An iconic line in all the movies.

It's a love story where he loses but he wins at the same time. He stands the test and he's left standing and now he gets the girl.

As much as I love the movie Rocky and I want to emulate his heart to fight his fighting spirit, I can never yell out at the end of my life and say, yo,

I did it. When I stand before God, all I can yell, all

I can cry or shout out is, he did it. He made me stand. He kept me from falling.

I don't have the power to beat the world, the flesh, or the devil. He does. He was the one who was beaten and publicly humiliated so that I wouldn't be.

And please don't take the illustration too far and think I'm calling Jesus the underdog. I'm not. Or that his victory was ever in question.

It wasn't. No, I'm saying he's able to keep me and you from stumbling and present us before the presence of his glory with great joy.

This is the anthem of God that inspires me and keeps me in the love of God. And I pray it does you as well.

As a Christian, I want to fight like a Rocky, but I don't want to be a Rocky. I want to be an

Adrian. I want to be, I want to be the bride that faithfully stands by her husband, a suitable helpmate that serves him, believes in him, trusts that he could do whatever he set out to do.

He is able to keep me from falling and present me blameless, which includes rescuing my soul from hell.

As it is said today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.

Call on the savior. He's able to save. Let's pray.

Father in heaven, what great joy it is to stand in your presence, blameless because of your son,

Jesus. May we never forget that it's you who keeps us and not the other way around. I pray that we would keep ourselves in the love of God, boasting in him and of his cross, serving one another in love and putting on other's interests ahead of our own.

Father, keep our eyes fixed on you and in humility to die to ourselves. You have saved us to serve you.

May we contend for the faith, the faith that you gave us by your mercy and grace. And may we as faithful to you as you are to us.