Untitled Sermon (2)

Tonight, as we return to our series Scripture Meditations, we open our Bibles to the book of Jude. Tonight, our message will focus on the words of verse 3. I have entitled our message The Good Fight. Follow along as I read verses 1-4, then we will bow together in a word of prayer.

A MESSAGE OF COMPULSION

As we begin to look at verse 3 together, I want us to first of all note that the message of the book of Jude is a message of compulsion.

Jude, the half brother of the Lord Jesus and brother of James, desired to write a letter extolling the glory of our salvation.His desire was to encourage the church and offer words of praise.

Yet Jude tells us that when he determined to write and gave the diligence to do so, he was compelled by the Spirit of God to write another message.

In fact, Jude says that the message now written was “needful for me to write unto you”. The word needful is a Greek word that means the state of being absolutely required.

So what was this message that he was compelled to write about?The answer to that is found in verse 4 — “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Jude was writing to address the importance of contending for the faith given to the church because of the apostasy — “the abandonment or renunciation of a religious belief.”Jude is writing to warn the church about the terrible disease affecting the body of Christ.This apostasy was seen in the fact that there were those who …Distorted the truthDenied the truthThese men, if accepted into the church and followed, would cause the church to desert from the truth.Warren Wiersbe reminds us that — “The church is always one generation short of extinction.”If we fail in this generation to guard the faith/truth entrusted to our care and pass it along to the next generation to do the same, we are then finished.So then, let’s take the time to consider Jude’s exhortation to contend earnestly for the faith.

A MESSAGE OF CONTENTION

As we look at this exhortation which by the way is more than a mere suggestion.The word contend is called an infinitive of command. In the Greek it carries the same weight as an imperative.Jude is placing each believer under the obligation to earnestly contend for the faith.Let’s now break down this phrase into its parts and understand its meaning. We will do this first by …

Define It

CONTEND — in our Bibles we read that we are to earnestly contend for the faith. The words earnestly contend are one word in the original.The term speaks of strenuous or labored effort. It speaks of struggle and agony.It is a word that is associated with athletic competition and from it we get our word agonize.Every athlete knows what it means to struggle through a competition, to give all our his or hers resources in order to win the game.Here Jude uses the term in the same way to speak of a military conflict. While in the midst of a battle, a soldiers does not take time to sit under a tree, open up a good book, put on his headphones and listen to his favorite music while reading for the afternoon.A soldiers remains engaged in the battle. He continues to fight on behalf of others.This is the exhortation of Jude. We as the church, every individual ought to be engaged in the fight for the faith so that we might ensure victory for those who follow.FAITH — the second term that we need to understand is the word faith. This is the Greek word pistis. I share that because there is an important distinction that we need to make. Jude was compelled by the Holy Spirit to write to the church in order to compel each of us to fight for the FAITH.He does not say salvation nor does he say gospel. These are certainly included in the faith, but the word faith is far more inclusive than the other two terms.What note that? Today, there is a generation that wants to makes statements like “It is all about the Gospel.” The meaning of such a statement is that was long as you get the message of salvation right and preach the gospel noting else matters.Yet Jude under compulsion of the Spirit says that we are to contend for the faith.This word faith encompasses the extensive body of Bible doctrines which make up the perfect whole of revealed truth.Systematically, we break down doctrine into 10 major segments each one being important to our faith, our system of belief.I would also say that when we consider the faith there are those truths which are fundamental without which there is no faith: Virgin birth, the deity of Christ, the bodily resurrection, the inspiration of Scripture, the second coming.For these Jude says we ought to willing be engaged in the battle, fighting for the truth for the benefit of others.Now that we have defined it, let’s …

Describe It

As we seek now to describe the action of contending for the faith, we want to do so under by asking two question.HOW? — How do we know that someone is actively engaged in fighting for the faith? How do we each individually do so?WHERE? — the second question is where. Where does this action take place? Is it something one outside the church or inside the church?In answer to these questions let me say first of all, that most times when we turn this passage in the church, we consider it from the vantage point of fighting against unbelief. We often focus on the outward fight against unbelievers or disobedient brethren.Often, these words are discussed in the sense of theological warfare against false doctrine which is a fair and proper viewpoint.However, as I considered these words this week, I am reminded that the challenge goes far beyond theological debate. They go far beyond speaking out against the heretics (again included in this concept and rightly so).The battle that we are fighting must be fought on a positive front with those whom we love. We must contend for the faith within as well as without.We must contend for the lives of those entrusted to our care, our families, our children and grandchildren, our church.We fight for the faith every time we preach the truth at church or proclaim the truth at home as we instruct our families.We contend for the faith as we train (narrow) our children in the way they should go as we faithfully bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.We contend for the faith as we pray with our grandchildren, encourage our children in their parenting and give of our resources to ensure the next generations training.We contend as we support the next generation as they go off to Bible college to train for the ministry and support and help them achieve that end.We contend when we help our children transition from childhood to adulthood and allow them to take their place in the church and serve the Lord.We contend in every Sunday school classroom, every junior church and youth meeting.We contend with every dollar given to the church to promote the work of ministry here and abroad.We contend when we encourage our brothers and sister in prayer and through serving them and meeting their needs.We contend for the faith when we follow the admonition of Scripture and no longer walk with those who have turned from the faith and compromised the truth.We contend when we faithfully support our pastors and leaders and refuse to engage in and listen to gossip and slander.We contend every time we are faithful to Christ and share Him with those who are lost.We contend as we disciple new believers. We contend when we in the spirit of love forgive those who have hurt us and allow the Spirit of God through reconciliation to restore them who have fallen.

Beloved, let us contend for the faith.