Faith Worth Fighting For
Tony Schachle
Contend: Lessons from Jude • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 13 viewsNotes
Transcript
SCRIPTURE
SCRIPTURE
Jude 1–16 (NKJV)
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Turn with me to the little book of Jude. One chapter. Twenty-five verses. Easy to overlook, tucked in right before Revelation. But don't let its size fool you — this letter carries some of the most urgent language in the New Testament.
Here's what I want you to see before we even get to verse 1. Look at verses 3 and 4 with me:
3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed...
Do you see what happened there? Jude sat down with a pen in his hand to write a devotional letter. A celebration letter. A letter about "our common salvation" — the sweetness of what we share together in Christ. That's the letter he wanted to write.
That's not the letter he sent.
Something happened between the first line and the third verse. The Holy Spirit interrupted Jude's agenda. He said, in effect, "Not that letter. This one." Because while Jude was thinking about celebrating the faith, wolves were already inside the fold.
I want you to hold onto that thought this morning, because I think it says something about how the Spirit works in our lives too. Sometimes we have plans for what today should be about, and God redirects us to what today actually needs to be about. Jude wanted to write about salvation. God needed him to write about survival.
So this morning we're starting a two-part series I'm calling "Contend." Tonight, we'll look at the back half of this letter — the doxology, the promise that God is able to keep us. But this morning, we start where Jude started: with a threat inside the camp, and a call to fight for something worth fighting for.
Because make no mistake — Jude is not writing about a fight with the world outside the church. He's writing about a fight for the integrity of the church itself.
MESSAGE
MESSAGE
THE CALL TO ARMS (vv. 1–3)
1 Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ: 2 Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. 3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
Hey Jude
1 Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:
That's interesting. Jude was the half-brother of Jesus. He grew up in the same house. He could have opened this letter by saying, "Jude, brother of the Lord Jesus Christ." That's a credential nobody could argue with. Instead, he calls himself a doulos — a bondservant, a slave.
Why does that matter? Because Jude understood something a lot of us forget: authority in the Kingdom doesn't come from proximity or pedigree. It comes from submission. Jude didn't lead with "I grew up with Jesus." He led with "I belong to Jesus." That's the posture every one of us needs before we ever try to contend for anything — we contend as servants, not as self-appointed generals.
Three Truths
Called (you’ve been called out)
Sanctified by God the Father (set apart for a specific purpose)
Preserved in Jesus Christ (He is our guardian and protector)
The Thesis
3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
Now look at verse 3 again, because this is the thesis of the whole letter: "I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints."
Two phrases we need to unpack
First — "contend earnestly." In the Greek, that's one word: epagōnizomai [ep-ag-o-nid'-zom-ahee]. You hear the root in there — agōnizomai [ag-o-nid'-zom-ahee]— where we get our English word "agonize." This is athletic and military language. It's the picture of a wrestler straining every muscle against an opponent, or a soldier fighting for a position he cannot afford to lose. This isn't a polite disagreement. This is Jude telling the church: strain, agonize, fight for this.
Second — "the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints." That phrase "once for all" translates hapax [hap'-ax] — a fixed point, a completed act. The faith wasn't something still under construction when Jude wrote this. It had been handed over — paradidōmi [par-ad-id'-o-mee], the same word family used for handing down a tradition, passing on a trust. Something was given to the church to guard, not to revise.
That matters today more than ever. We live in a culture that treats truth as fluid — “your truth,” “my truth,” everything is negotiable. Jude says the faith was delivered once. Fixed. Complete. Something worth agonizing over because it isn't ours to edit.
THE ENEMY INSIDE THE WIRE (v. 4)
Change of Plans
Now here's why Jude changed his plans.
4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
"Crept in unnoticed" — one Greek word again: pareisdyō [par-ice-doo'-no]. It's a military term. Picture a soldier slipping past a sentry in the dark, infiltrating a defended position without being seen. These weren't outside attackers storming the gate. These were infiltrators, already inside, already sitting in the pews, already teaching.
The Threats
They turned grace into lewdness — literally, into license for sensuality. They took the doctrine of grace, twisted it, and used it as a permission slip for sin. "God's grace covers it, so it doesn't matter how I live." That's not grace. That's a counterfeit wearing grace's name.
And they denied the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ — they compromised on who Jesus actually is.
Here's the application, church, and I want to say it carefully: the greatest threats to a church rarely walk in wearing a sign that says "false teacher." They creep in unnoticed. They sound reasonable. They may even sound spiritual. That's exactly why discernment isn't optional, and it isn't unloving. Guarding the flock is an act of love, not an act of suspicion.
THREE CASE FILES FROM HISTORY (vv. 5–7)
Jude doesn't just make an assertion — he brings evidence. Three case files from Israel's history.
Israel
5 But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
Israel was saved out of Egypt — and still, an entire generation was destroyed in the wilderness for unbelief. Salvation from Egypt didn't cancel accountability in the wilderness.
Angels
6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;
Angels who abandoned their assigned position are now kept, chained, awaiting judgment. If God didn't overlook that rebellion, He won't overlook ours.
Sodom and Gomorrah
7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Jude says these cities were made a public exhibit — a permanent, visible warning of what eternal judgment actually looks like.
Three different case files. One conclusion: God is patient, but He is not passive. Judgment delayed is not judgment denied.
THREE PORTRAITS OF THE INFILTRATOR (vv. 8–13)
Three Sins
8 Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. 9 Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10 But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves.
Defile the Flesh
Reject Authority
Speak Evil of Dignitaries
Three Old Testament Figures
Now Jude turns from history to diagnosis. He names three Old Testament figures as patterns for what these false teachers look like.
11 Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
The way of Cain — self-willed religion. Cain wanted to worship God on his own terms, not God's terms, and when confronted, he grew violent instead of repentant.
The error of Balaam — ministry for profit. Balaam knew the right words to say but was willing to sell his gift to the highest bidder. This is spiritual leadership corrupted by greed.
The rebellion of Korah — grasping for authority never given. Korah wasn't content with his God-assigned role; he wanted Moses' position and paid for it with his life.
Four Illustrations
And then Jude reaches for imagery — vivid, almost poetic language to describe what these people actually are underneath the performance.
12 These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; 13 raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
A cloud without water promises rain and delivers nothing.
A tree twice dead has no life left to give.
A raging wave looks powerful but only churns up foam and shame.
A wandering star has no fixed course to guide anyone by.
That's Jude's verdict on ministry that has substance in appearance only — all promise, no delivery.
THE ANCIENT VERDICT (vv. 14–16)
An Ancient Prophecy
Finally, Jude reaches all the way back to Enoch — seven generations from Adam — and quotes an ancient prophecy:
14 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, 15 to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
Here's what's remarkable: this warning wasn't new. It wasn't reactionary. Judgment on ungodliness was prophesied before the flood ever came. Nothing about apostasy catches God by surprise. He has always known this fight was coming, and He has always been preparing His people to stand in it.
A Final Description
Verse 16 closes with a plain, almost anticlimactic description:
16 These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.
Notice — after all that dramatic imagery, Jude ends with something painfully ordinary.
Grumbling.
Complaining.
Flattery for personal gain.
Sometimes the enemy inside the camp doesn't look dramatic at all. Sometimes it just looks like discontent dressed up as spiritual maturity.
CLOSING
CLOSING
So let's land back where we started — verse 3.
3 ...contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
This isn't a call to suspicion. It's not a call to be harsh with people or to go looking for enemies under every rock. It's a call to stewardship — to guard something precious that was handed to you, because it's worth guarding.
Church, the faith you hold was purchased and delivered to you. It didn't originate with you, and it isn't yours to reshape. It's yours to protect, to pass on intact, and yes — when necessary — to fight for.
Tonight, we shift. We move from the battlefield to the throne room — from what we're fighting against to who is fighting for us. Because Jude doesn't end this letter in the trenches. He ends it in worship.
Let's pray.
