Kept to Contend

Introduction

Not sure what pastor Ryan was thinking allowing the youth pastor to preach the Sunday he gets back from youth camp…not sure what would come out this morning…lol.

We are taking another break from Esther, this time in the book of Jude.

Jude has become one of my favorite books of the Bible. It’s one of the shorter letters but it is packed full of truth that leads us to worship God all the more.

It seems from biblical scholars that Jude was written sometime between 50-70 AD. We’re not sure who exactly Jude is writing to.

What we know for sure is that he of course is writing to believers, warning them about something major.

Our text reminded me of a time in summer camp: I was picked last one day for tennis baseball, discouraging. I came to find out later that this time, camp counselors picked who they thought were not so good first and kept who they thought was best for last pick.

I got picked last (not to boast up myself, high school baseball woes). I was being kept to the very last pick in order to compete in an extremely serious to me pick up game at summer camp. I was being kept to contend.

My sermon title this morning is “Kept to Contend”. What I hope you see in the text is that Jude has written this letter in order to encourage and call to action Christ followers.

I’ve separated this text into two sections: The Greeting and The Purpose.

The Greeting

We begin with the greeting. I want you to notice the way he describes himself in the first half of verse 1. A servant of Jesus Christ….and brother of James.

The word used here translated servant is actually better understood to be slave. This Jude is getting the idea across that he is a dedicated and bound servant of Christ…that’s who he belongs to.

He includes that he’s “the brother of James”. This is the same James that was a prominent leader in the first church in Acts, author of the book of James, and the half brother of Jesus.

Matthew 13 describes the brothers that Jesus had. If Jude was the brother of James, and James was the half-brother of Jesus, then so was Jude!

That being said, we can conclude that instead of making the claim to fame that Jude was Jesus’ brother, he instead refers to himself as the slave of Jesus!

Something changed in Jude! He got saved…as this self description reveals. He is a servant of Christ.

After Jude makes known who he is, he then continues on in this greeting at the top of his letter to provide meaningful encouragement to the believers he’s writing to.

He likes to group things into three’s. He addresses this letter to those who are called, beloved by God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ. Called, loved, kept.

Each of these descriptions hold incredible weight individually and together. First, Jude addresses his audience as those who are called. That is, those who are called by the Lord Himself…unto Himself.

Christians are described in the New Testament as those called.

1 Corinthians 1:9 “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

There is a clear thread here from Jude. Interpreted correctly, it’s plain to see that those who are called, beloved, and kept are all qualified by an action FROM GOD!

Those who are saved are those who are called by the Lord. Brought in. Drawn. Gathered by the Good Shepherd. They are called to God in salvation and also called by God to live lives that glorify Him.

Christians are also beloved in God the Father. The Father is righteous, holy, God Almighty. And yet in His yet love has chosen to love us humans. A love like this doesn’t register in our brains. It is so deep, so wide, so all consuming.

Lastly here in verse 1, believers are those that are kept. For Jesus Christ…by God Himself. This is a continuing action. If we are believers in Christ then we are protected by Him until the very end.

We are securely kept in His hand. John 10:27–30 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.””

Think about this like the comfort you experience around your parents. You know they got you. You know they’re providing for you. You know you won’t have to worry about it because your mom and dad have it under control.

God the Father has this under control. Don’t let anyone tell you you can lose your salvation. Jude 1 says the opposite. If you are in Christ then you have been called by God, you are loved in Him, and are kept by Him and for Him forever.

Notice quickly that word for. We belong to Christ. What’s our only hope in life and death? We belong to Him. For the follower of Jesus, Christ is yours and you are His!

I pray this encourages you this morning. I know doubts arise regarding salvation. The enemy works hard. Christian, let verse 1 wash over you this morning.

Salvation is God’s working from beginning to end. Rejoice in the love He has for us that He would save us wretches!

Jude ends this greeting with a prayer that mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to his audience. That these three things that God posses would be found in abundance amongst the believers he’s writing to.

He is intentionally setting the stage at the beginning of this letter before calling believers to contend for this same faith that encourages them.

You see, it is good to let these truths wash over you and bring you peace and comfort before God. But know, that in no way excludes you from Christian duty and service. Rather, these truths infused with God’s grace are what fuel us for God-glorifying Christian service!

This brings us to the purpose for Jude’s letter.

The Purpose

In verse 3 he uses the term “beloved”. This is a term of endearment used by Jude, clearly showing how much he cares for these believers. The purpose of his letter is coming out of a place of love for his fellow brothers and sisters in the faith.

It’s so interesting what he says here…Jude 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.”

Jude wanted, eagerly, to write to these Christians about their common salvation…but he found it necessary to write calling them to contend.

He wasn’t just eager, but very eager to write about their common salvation. But what’s their common salvation? The salvation that all believers experience by faith in Christ the Lord!

You see, there is no top tier, second tier, and third tier salvation. There is only one, common salvation that all true believers partake in. The weak and the strong. The poor and the rich. The healthy and the sick. If we’ve placed faith in Christ alone and His finished work on the cross, we share a common salvation with one another! Amen!

Therefore, when those doubts come. Those feelings of insecurity creep in. When you are tempted to compare your walk with Christ with your brother or sister next to you, please remember this. We share in a common salvation saints! Purchased by Christ Jesus for us. His name is the only one to be lifted up.

This being true, beloved, we ought to rejoice in the community of our common salvation. We share in a common salvation, not an isolated one. This is the essence of Christ teaching us that the world will know us, His disciples, by our love for one another.

The love Christ has showered over us leads us to love one another deeply, modeled after our Savior. Let this love mark every aspect of our lives and drive us all the more passionately to live in unity and fellowship with each other as believers.

An often difficult application that stems from this truth is that this type of common salvation… which leads us into community with one another doesn’t JUST take place for an hour and a half on a Sunday morning. Or on JUST Sunday morning and Wednesday night.

No, rather this common salvation is to be lived out in all of life…together in Christian love and unity…for the glory of our Father in Heaven.

The beginning of Verse 3 is interesting because of its truth but also because we don’t know what Jude would’ve wrote about originally, outside of having to do with the believers common salvation. Instead, Jude was hearing about, perhaps witnessing, a major problem within the church that needed to be addressed.

In fact, this problem was so serious, that Jude changed the WHOLE PURPOSE OF HIS LETTER for it. His purpose now is to write to command these believers to contend, fight for the faith. Faith here has in view the whole of the truth of salvation and sound doctrine as found the in the Scriptures.

And Jude says this faith was once for all delivered to the saints. Who was this delivered by? God Himself! Once for all time, as found in His word revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. This faith, this sound doctrine, was delivered from the Lord ONCE FOR ALL, that is, there is no such thing as progressive revelation.

All that we need for faith, salvation, and for our knowledge of God is found in the closed canon of the Bible, given to us through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God!

I want us to understand what Jude means by contend in verse 3. But in order to do that, it would do us well to look at verse 4 first.

We are given his reasoning for the command here. For, certain people have crept into the community of believers, into the church, unnoticed. A certain ominous feel to Jude’s words here.

How have these certain people crept in? I think about it almost like the neighborhood Hilliard cats in our car port. They creep in, leaving remnants behind. I rarely catch them in there, yet their stench sticks around. 

These early Christians, following after our Savior’s example, invited others in. They were likely welcoming and wanted as many as possible to share in this common salvation in Christ alone.

Now, hindsight is always 20/20. It is so easy for us to wag a finger here and think “I would never allow that”. Please hear me…this happens more than you know.

I don’t say to scare you…but to make you aware. This is a reality even in our day. Listen to TBN or choose one of the ridiculously popular preachers out there today. Many have crept in unnoticed.

Jude tells us here that this is a problem that must be corrected and guarded against! The certain people Jude is observing have been long ago designated for this condemnation. That is, the type of OT (long ago) condemnation we read about throughout the rest of Jude’s letter.

These are false teachers that are ungodly. They’ve crept in, giving off the appearance of Christian…but its all for show. These certain people pervert the grace of God. That is, they live in open immorality. Open sin. They have no regard for holiness.

And to make it worse, they claim the grace of God as their excuse. Church, does this not sound like our day? There are so many out there, especially in America, that would fit this category.

And not only this category but also the last one Jude provides, denying our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. A flat out denial of Christ, a complete abandoning of sound doctrine for sinful pleasure.

Christ’s death burial and resurrection purchased our salvation, which we receive by faith. Through His finished work on the cross we are saved, given the residing Holy Spirit within us, in order that He may change us progressively throughout all of life…to look more like Christ.

This is not an excuse to sin in the grace of God but to kill sin as we are empowered by His grace.

Maybe as I’ve been working through this you’ve realized this is you or close to you…please repent today. There’s no time to waste. Maybe its not you…stand guard, kill sin. It could be, easier than you know.

Not to say you could be close to being a false teacher…rather that we are all prone to sinning and stumbling. Cling to Christ our victor.

Perhaps you’ve noticed the need for Jude to command Christians to contend in verse 3…because these frauds that have crept in are peddling seriously damaging teaching that would lead anyone into dangerous territory if they were to believe it.

In the face of false teachers perverting the grace of God and denying Jesus Christ, Jude calls us as believers to contend. To fight for the faith delivered once for all to the saints.

Christ’s church is not to let ugly weeds fester and grow but we are to pluck the root of false doctrine any chance we get with gentleness and respect.

The final point here: you have to know the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints in order to contend for it. Successful generals won’t lead soldiers into war without an understanding of their main objectives.

Do you know how to sniff out false teaching when it is presented to you? Believe me, its out there and it spreads. Do you study the word in order to glorify God and contend for the faith?

Do you pray for the Lord to give you more understanding of Him in His word, so that you may not be thrown and tossed by every wind of doctrine?

We desperately need to.

Conclusion

Christians are called, beloved, and kept by Christ in order to contend for the faith. This is part of the believers work, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

So, believer, be encouraged with this: if you truly believe in Christ, it is because you’ve been called by Him. You are beloved deeply in God the Father. And you are being kept right now…and for ALL eternity by God.

And He will give you everything you need in order to contend for the faith for the Father’s glory.

PRAY