Contending for the Faith

Jude 1–4 ESV

1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: 2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. 3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

INTRODUCTION

When was the last time you heard a sermon preached from the book of Jude? Jude is a book often treated as a blip in scripture before you get to Revelation. Or a marker that denotes what is coming next.

Jude is closely tied and even incorporated into the letter of 2 Peter.

AUTHORSHIP

The author of Jude was not an apostle and, therefore, is not the Jude mentioned in Luke 6:16 and Acts 1:13. He identifies himself as a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. The most prominent James in the early Church was the blood brother of Jesus, who after Peter and until his own death in A.D. 62, was the influential leader of the “mother church” in Jerusalem.

The conclusion can be drawn and has been established by many theologians that Jude is in fact the half brother of Jesus and blood brother of James.

Historical Background

Jude wrote his letter between 66 and 68 AD to the followers of Jesus in Judea just prior to the Judean revolt in Rome. Tensions rose into a Zealot-led Judean war with Rome in AD 66 that ended with the destruction of the Temple in AD 70.

The Situation: Some godless people, namely Judaeans who favored the Zealot revolt against Rome, have infiltrated the community of believers residing in Judaea (Jude 4).

There is an overwhelming support from commentators that the recipient of the letter were Jewish Christians.

First, the recipients were familiar with the OT expressions unique to Judaism.

Second, Jude alludes to numerous events and people from Hebrew Scripture without any prodding or further development of the characters. Jude assumes his readers are familiar with Exodus, fallen angels, and Sodom and Gomorrah.

Third, the recipients were familiar with Jewish traditions preserved in Second Temple Texts. For instance, Jude references several Jewish traditions captured pseudepigraphal literature such as Enoch and Assumption of Moses. It would be natural for a Jewish author writing to a Jewish audience to refer to these nonbiblical texts.

3 Aspects of a Believers Assurance to be able to Contend for the Faith.

Jude's letter begins and ends with very comforting words to Christians. In verse 1 it describes us as "those who are called, loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ." All three verbs are passive. They stress the action of God.

God calls, God loves, and God keeps. We are called, are loved, and are kept.

1. Being Called by God

If you have yet to be called by God it is impossible for you to contend for the Faith.

What does it mean for us to be called by God? (How do I know?)

The Bible often mentions being called out by God for specific ministry or service.

Paul a servant of Christ was called to be an apostle of Christ set apart for the Gospel ministry.

God also called the entire nation of Israel to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” Exodus 19:6. The Church redeemed by the blood of Jesus, is similarly called: “You have made them to be a kingdom of priests to serve our God, and they will reign here on the earth” Revelation 5:10.

The specific call of God in scripture is for Salvation, and that is what Jude is referring to at the beginning of his letter.

Those who are beloved by the Lord are called. They have heard a voice that worldly people have not heard; they have seen a face that the blind men of this world have never seen; they have touched a hand that those dead ones who still lie in the wicked one have never felt. They are called.

- Charles Spurgeon

Every Christian has been called by God to be a Christian. It even goes deeper than that, we know that in the Old Testament the nation of Israel were called to be God’s people. And now Jude writes to Christians who stand in a long line of succession which stretches all the way back to God’s call of Abraham, through today, to the future glory that is yet to come.

Christians are people of God who have inherited the promises that God made to Israel.

There are several important things we learn about what it looks like to live as the Called of God

2. Being Loved By God

If you have not received the Saving love of God for you in that while you were a sinner Christ died for you, then it is impossible for you to contend for the faith.

1 John 3:1 ESV

1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

How does knowing that those who are called by God are loved by God change how I live out my calling?

How often do we take for granted the kind of love the Father has for us. “See what kind of love the Father has for us, that we should be called children of God.”

To all who are beloved by God they are called the called of “Jesus Christ” and the “beloved of God.” You are the called of Jesus Christ,” and you are the beloved of God.

What does this mean?

For many people, the only way they have ever conceived of the love of God is that he loves the world, and therefore he loves everyone in the same way. And indeed he does love the world. Jesus said in Matthew 5:44-45, “Love your enemies . . . so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” In other words, God’s love is as broad and as general as the rising sun and the falling rain.

And John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world (the cosmos) that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” In other words we may offer eternal life to every person on planet earth who will put his or her faith in Jesus, the Son of God. And it was the love of God that sent his Son so that offer could be made to the world.

So, in the broad general sense he sustains the unbelieving world with sunshine and rain, and offers eternal life, at the cost of his Son, to any and all who will believe.

We also see this expression of God’s calling and His love in Romans 1:7

Romans 1:7 ESV

7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Does this not sound like Paul is saying that those who are called by God to belong to Jesus Christ are loved by God in a special way, not that they are loved because everyone else in Rome is also loved by God.

It would be like if I wrote and letter to Diana and said, “I write you, my beloved, Diana, be strong and be encouraged by the grace of God,” would anyone assume the reason I called Diana “beloved” is because I love every woman the way a Christian should, and since Diana is a woman, she too is loved by Pastor Mark, because he loves all women?

No. Nobody would say that. Rather, If I write, “To my beloved, Diana,” every body would assume there is a special kind of love that I have for Diana.

I do not think Jude wants us to assume that God calls me “beloved” because he loves everyone else the same, and since I am part of everybody, I am also beloved by God.”

3. Being kept for Jesus

If you are not yet being kept by God for the day of Christs return then it is impossible for you to contend for the faith.

Note: It is Jesus himself who keeps or protects his followers at this present time. Ont he other hand, the question must be asked, who are kept? It is in the interest of God that believers are kept for the coming of Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 ESV

23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Being Kept has a dual connotation:

1). Protected from harm or danger

2). Kept for the future coming of Christ.

Can someone who is truly saved (kept) fall away from the faith? Or fall away from grace?

Can we loose our Salvation?

At the end of his letter in verse 24 we read, “Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of the glory with rejoicing, to the only God… be glory.”

Notice in verse 1 we are kept by God for Jesus Christ. And in verse 24 God is able to keep us from falling. Jude begins and ends the letter with the assurance that God exerts His omnipotence to keep them from falling away from the faith.

So, how should we answer someone who questions how you can be so sure you will keep the faith to the end and so be saved from the judgment? You should say something like this:

“God has called me out of unbelief. Therefore I know that he loves me with a particular special kind of love. Therefore I know that he will keep me from falling. He will work in me that which is pleasing in his sight (Hebrews 13:21), and present me with rejoicing before the throne of glory on that day.

The Fear of the Call

Many of the greatest fears we experience in this life come not from what we can see but, what we cannot see - from the next unpredictable natural disaster, from the nameless and faceless thief that might break in while we are sleeping, from the disease that could strike someone in our family at any time. Satan consumes us with fear by inflaming the unknown. He exploits our imagination, and torments our feelings of insecurity.

How will He keep you?

The Lord Can and will keep you.

The Israelites new such insecurity as each year they would travel from their homes to far away Jerusalem, many of them on foot, for one of the three major feasts. Along the road would be threats of exposure to the harsh elements, or robbers who hid in caves and hills, knowing exactly when to expect their victims.

Our road to heaven the new Jerusalem is much longer and no less treacherous. We carry God’s promises with us, but life still often feels desperate and uncertain.

Where does your help come from? Psalm 121:2 reminds us that our help comes from the Lord, who made the very heavens and the earth. No weapon of man, no weapon of Satan, no danger in nature can keep God from keeping you.

“He will keep your Life.” The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.”

How can God say all evil when we seem to suffer so much from evil. Remember Jesus promise to the the disciples in Luke 21:16-18 that they would be delivered up by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death… But not a hair on your head will perish. How can someone be put to death and not a hair on their head perish.

Remember Jesus said, “Do not fear those who kill the body and cannot kill the soul.” (Matt. 10:28) Evil can and will harm us in this life, but it can only do so much harm. Satan can make months, or years, or even decades miserable for us, but his leash is short, and eternity is for every.

The Lord will keep you from anything that will harm you. Remember what Jesus said in John 16:33 “In me you may have peace, in the world you will have tribulation, but, take heart I have overcome the world.”

There are two promises Jesus gives us in this text:

1) For those who follow in the footsteps of Jesus you will have tribulations or difficulties in this life,

2) However, we must take heart because Jesus has already overcome sin and death for us so that neither death, nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things past nor things to come, nor anything that threatens you - can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:38-39).

Article by Marshal Seager / Desiring God.

“If God is your keeper, he is “your shade on your right hand” (Psalm 121:5), meaning no one is nearer to you than the one who keeps you. Nothing can come between you and your God. “The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night” (Psalm 121:6). This is the writer’s way of saying, “No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed” (Isaiah 54:17) — no weapon of man, no weapon of Satan, no danger in nature can keep God from keeping you.:

Remember the psalmist writes in Psalms 121:2

Psalm 121:2 ESV

2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

If the Hills around us look threatening, remember who made the hills. Your God built each and every hill to its precise height and dimensions, right down to the tiniest fraction of an inch. He shaped every curve and cliff, planting each bush and flower and putting each rock in its place. He counted and scattered each blade of grass on the hill. Your God knows this hill, he watches over this hill, he governs this hill, and yet how quickly are we to run to the hills of this world and doubt whether God can keep his children.

*God can keep you because there is nothing our God cannot do.

Note: Remember in Acts 4:24 when the religious leader charged the apostles and warned them not to preach the gospel anymore, they prayed a similar prayer: “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them...”

Where did the early church find the courage to keep witnessing? They began by remembering just how powerful their God was - the power they could see everywhere they looked. Look around, look closely, and know that you serve a Lord who can keep you.

The problem with contending for the faith today is not that our God is too big but that He is too small.

The Purpose: TO DEFEND THE FAITH.

“Jude was eager to write to his readers about their common Salvation.”

Jude addresses his audience as friends who have a common faith as those who have received salvation. The eagerness of Jude to write this letter could also infer the urgent matter that he wanted to address with the church.

Actually writing a letter today has become a lost art. In the world of texts and messaging our communication has become less urgent and more mundane in its delivery. Jude does not appear to be one to sit on the sidelines and say nothing when he see’s danger ahead.

Whatever, he intended to say about their common salvation, the letter takes a turn as he addresses the heart of the matter. He exhorts his readers to “contend for the faith.”

Why do we need to contend for the faith?

Contend: assert as a position in an argument; to struggle in opposition; to contend with the enemy for control; compete for a prize.

In the next phrase Jude makes it evident that his readers have been caught off guard or unaware of wolves in sheep’s clothing that have infiltrated the ranks of the church.

The expression of contending for the faith in the common Greek has the relationship to a contest in a stadium. In other words this is a serious struggle. While the opportunities are yet to be given, the prize to be kept is clear: the faith. In fact in verse 20 it is called, “the most holy faith.” (perhaps this is in contrast to the unholiness of the false teachers).

This is a faith that they have received and a calling that has been entrusted and passed down by the saints of old. The word contend can also take on the idea of a constant struggle. Look at the early apostles, the constant struggle they had with people infiltrating the ranks of the Saved looking like the saved, however, playing the part of a hypocrite. (Actor on a stage playing a part in the play)

At the Journey we have a new members class and interview of everyone wanting to join the church. Some may find this unnecessary and choose to not become a member. However, I would say that you should not want to be a part of a church that does not vet it’s membership. It should be of utmost importance to guard against intruders who are masquerading as the saved.

Current Problem with Contender’s

We have fewer people today who are contending for the faith. Most people are satisfied with staying on the sideline and playing it safe. Few people are willing to stand up for the faith and protect the church. This has taken many forms in the modern church however, the intention is the same.

Most pretenders who are not contenders bring worldly values and agendas into the church. The greatest offenders have to do with God’s design and plan for marriage, sexuality, and the family. Other’s are more subtle such as what does it mean to be a Christian, how is a person saved from their sins, the downgrading of sinful behavior into categories of sinfulness.

The Problem: the presence of people who have an alternate version of Christian belief.

Jude is indicating that the false teachers were not originally part of the church but have come in from the outside, probably presenting themselves as traveling Christian teachers and prophets.

There entrance was not secret in that no one knew they were there. In fact “certain” is used frequently for an unnamed group of people whom the readers knew very well. There entrance was secret in that they presented themselves and their original behavior did not alert the church to the reality that these teachers had an unacceptable alternative view of the faith. Jude is attempting to unmask them.

CURRENT CULTURAL SITUATION:

What does this look like in our church today. Let me give you some warning signs.

1). False Teachers prey on the spiritually immature.

Paul continually expresses concerns for minds of believers who may be “let astray by belief in a different Jesus, a different spirit, a different gospel.

Galatians 1:6–7 ESV

6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

2) False teaching can be the product of distorted interpretations of Scripture by those not firmly established in truth.

Some pervert the meaning of scriptures that are “hard to understand.”

3) False teaching grows out of ungodly ambition, ignorance, and conceit.

Paul warned Timothy about false teachers who “wandered away into vain discussions, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.” (1 Tim. 1:6-7). (these people will seek to lead into idle debates that do nothing for the building up of the body of Christ)

4) False teaching sometimes stems from a desire for material gain.

This is very apparent in our modern world, where faith-healing prosperity preachers prey upon underprivileged to finance their extravagant lifestyles, but the same kind of greed motivated false prophecy and teaching in the early church. Paul defended his apostleship in this way, “We are not like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ”.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Tim. 6:4b–5, 10 CSB).

5) False teaching can result from and lead to inappropriate sensuality and sexual immorality.

These false teachers do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites or [belly]. Romans 16:18

Romans 16:18 ESV

18 For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.

In a post-sexual revolution Western culture, people still “follow” their own sinful desires and accumulate for themselves teaching to suit their own passions.

6) False Teachers seek to divide the church.

Paul cautioned the church at Rome about those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.” (Romans 16:17). Titus 3:9

Titus 3:9 ESV

9 But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.

“As for a person who stirs up division after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned (Titus 3:10-11).

7) False teaching can come from apostates and deviant teachers within the church.

These people secretly bring in destructive heresies. Jesus warned about false prophets among the people who outwardly come in “sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” (Matt. 7:15).

In instances where theological matters of first importance are denied, rejected, or replaced, doctrine does divide the people of God from those who are not.

THE FIRST CHARGE: “whose condemnation was written about long ago”

condemnation written in heavenly books even before the world was created.

condemnation written a long time time before Jude, some suggesting 2 Peter.

condemnation written in some form of Jewish prophecy, including the prophecy of Enoch.

THE SECOND CHARGE: “they are godless.”

Someone who is completely devoid of God in their lives. Therefore, none of their motives, desires, or actions are led by God. Jude is not accusing these people of disbelief in God, but of moral rebellion against God. Morality rather than theology is the issue, even if sometimes bad theology leads to bad morality or vice versa.

THE THIRD CHARGE: “changing God’s grace into a license for immorality.”

The term sensuality especially in sexual immorality. It is complete contrast with the grace of God, a phrase appearing twenty-seven times in the N.T. In fact in some cases immorality was thought of as glorifying God by making his grace more magnificent.

Romans 6:1–2 ESV

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

1 Corinthians 5:1–2 ESV

1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

The fact is that as soon as one says that God forgives sins rather than demands full payment for every sin, the temptation is to presume upon such grace.

We are even guilt of using such statements as “God loves the sinner but hates the sin,” to make us feel better about our sinfulness.

Jude encounters the teaching of “cheap grace,” that is, grace without repentance or even grace that grants license to sin more than before, in those who are guilty of this, and it becomes one of the charges against them.

THE FOURTH CHARGE: “they deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign Lord.”

It is not the fact that these men and women actually denied any particular doctrine about jesus. In terms of a creed or church covenant document that they could sign. They may well have been orthodox in their lives as Jews. However, they turned around and denied Christ by their very actions.

This is the greatest travesty in the church today. People who proclaim Christ with their mouths but deny Him with their actions.

To confess that Jesus was one’s only Lord was to make a statement of independence from Caesar as well as a statement of submission to Jesus.

The first term, despotēs (the root of the English term “despot”), is rarer, occurring only ten times in the NT. While it is used in Luke-Acts and Revelation for God as master (Luke 2:29; Acts 4:24; Rev. 6:10), its common use is for the master that a slave must obey (1 Tim 6:1, 2; Titus 2:9; 1 Pet 2:18).

The point is that if people fail to obey someone, whether or not they call him “lord” or “master,” they are in fact denying that he is their lord or master.

So, their behavior with respect to the commands of Jesus (perhaps those found in the Sermon on the Mount or perhaps those given to the Jesus movement later through various prophets) reveals the true state of their hearts. However orthodox their words may be, their behavior denies that Jesus is really their only Sovereign and Lord.

Matthew 7:22–23 ESV

22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

CLOSING

Since this faith was “entrusted to God’s holy people,” all believers, not just Christian leaders, are called to defend the truth of Jesus Christ.

HOW ARE YOU CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH TODAY?

1). How are you daily growing in the faith?

A major part of our spiritual growth involves reading and studying God’s word so that we understand it.

2 Timothy 2:15 ESV

15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Is this you? If not why not?

2). How are you daily praying in the Holy Spirit?

By praying under the direction of the Holy Spirit, we receive help in our human weakness to understand God’s truth and not be deceived by false teachers.

3). Keep yourself in God’s love.

Remember that Jesus told us that if you keep my commands, you remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.” (John 15:10). We obey God because our hearts have been captivated and won in allegiance to Him alone.

4) Wait with Hope.

To contend for the faith means that we must keep the fire of our hope alive in our hearts. When Jude says to wait “expectantly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.”

How are you daily waiting expectantly for His return?