Why should we contend for the faith?

Introduction

There are things in life that are not all that important, and then there are those things that are worth fighting for.

Our health is one of those things, it is worth the fight. But many Americans are losing the battle. Not only do we overeat, but we eat a lot of bad foods. A recent report I read also suggested that the American diet includes too much salt.

“Ninety percent of children and 89 percent of adults consume more than the recommended 2,300 milligrams (or about a teaspoon) of sodium a day.” CBS news reports.

All that salt we are consuming puts us at risk for a number of health issues — high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and others.

If we are going to fight for our health, we have to reduce our daily intake of salt. To accomplish this, experts not only suggest you leave the salt shaker on the table, but that you cut your intake of salty foods. While that might seem obvious, it is difficult for us to do because these are foods that many of us love. Some of the foods that made the “too much salt list” were bacon, hot dogs, steaks, and hamburgers. All the things that we love to eat.

But if we are going to fight for our health, and I think most of us would agree that our health is worth fighting for, we have to cut back on these foods.

For some of you, that might be a new revelation.

Maybe you didn’t know those foods were bad for you. For others, you knew they weren’t good, but you just needed a reminder, some motivation to contend for your health.

It is easy for us to grow apathetic and allow foods to creep into our diet that aren’t healthy for us. That is especially true when we get busy with the daily grind of life. The last thing we are thinking about when we are trying to get to a meeting, accomplish a deadline, or get our kids to their third practice that week is how much salt is in our food. But we can’t let our guard down if we are going to contend for our health.

Transition: That is not only true of our physical health but of our own spiritual health and the spiritual health of the church.

We have to constantly be on guard or the health of the church will slip.

FCF: Honestly, that’s what the world desires — for the health of the church to slip.

One way the world is trying to help that along is through false teaching.

The danger of false teaching is that it is subtle. Sure, there are forms of false teaching that aren’t subtle. I have the prosperity gospel is one. It is easier to detect the misuse of Scripture, when a prosperity message is being shared. That doesn’t mean people aren’t deceived, but it can be easier to detect this form of false teaching.

While the prosperity gospel is not so subtle, there is a lot of false teaching that is subtle. A slight twisting of the text, or a subtle diminishing of the authority of Scripture. An appeal to the natural man. These are the methods of false teachers. Methods they use to try to diminish the health of the church. To drive a wedge between us and God’s Word, us and the true gospel.

BOND TO THE TEXT: It seems that is what is happening in the church to which Jude writes.

In verse 4 we learn that

“certain people have crept in unnoticed”.

We are going to talk more about what that means later, but what I want you to see right now is that the folks who crept into the church weren’t good for the church. They weren’t promoting spiritual health and vitality.Instead they were slowing killing the church one conversation, one message, one act at a time, just like salty food is killing us one bite, one meal at a time.

This is a serious matter. So series that Jude actually breaks from what he had planned to write in order to address this issue (vs 3).

In verse 3 Jude says,

"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’s concern, his letter, then, is not accidental. It’s not like Jude picked up his iPhone to respond to an email, and the next thing he knew he was carefully crafting his next Facebook story or Instagram message that he was going to tag this church in. Don’t look at me like that has never happened to you, because I know it has. I know that because it has happened to me. But that is not the case for Jude. He didn’t get distracted. He had a real concern that drove him to write an urgent letter to the church concerning their spiritual health.

While there are a number of things that come up in Jude’s letter, a number of rabbit holes one can follow, at it core, his letter is concerned with the church’s need to contend for the faith.

As we begin the letter this week, we are going to look at why we should do that. Why we should contend for the faith. So why?

Why should we contend for the faith?

Transition: In order for us to contend for the faith, we need to know what it means to contend.

So:

I. What does it mean to contend?

ILLUSTRATION: A few weeks ago Laura Mazur and Jessica Robertson — two women who had never met before — reached the 14 mile marker of the Dick’s Sporting Good’s marathon in Pittsburg at the same time.

While there were plenty of people who reached that mark in tandem with others, this pair was unique because they were in dead last. While Laura was a seasoned marathoner, Jessica wasn’t. This was actually her first marathon. She was in last place and exhausted. Knowing that she still had 12 miles to go, she felt completely defeated.

The two began chatting. Once Laura found out how Jessica felt, she told her,

“If you stay with me, I’ll stay with you and we will finish this race together.”

That is exactly what they did. A while later they crossed the finish line together, holding hands. As they struggled to the end, hands clutched, a spectator took a picture of them, posted it on social media, and it has since gone viral.

APPLICATION: The struggle they felt and the energy they expended to finish that marathon is the idea that Jude is communicating through this word “contend”.

Contending for the faith, then, is not an easy thing. It is not something you do casually or occasionally. It’s a daily fight. A daily struggle. It involves us daily putting forth effort and energy as we engage in a conflict for the faith.

Transition: Hearing that, you might be thinking, “All this contending is going to require a lot of effort on my part. So why do it? Why put forth the effort?”

Why do I need to contend for the faith?

Transition: Before I answer that question, let me encourage you by saying,

II. You don’t have to, nor should you, contend for the faith on your own.

In the middle of verse 3, when Jude says,

“I found it necessary to write to appeal to you to contend for the faith” (Jud 3b)

When Jude wrote that, he didn’t have one person in mind.

The “you” in this verse is plural. So instead of reading it as saying, “you, by yourself, alone, contend for the faith”, you should read it as, “you guys together contend for the faith” or as we might say down in Georgia “ya’ll contend for the faith”.

Contending for the faith, then, is not something you do by yourself, just like Jessica didn’t finish that race by herself. She needed help. She needed Laura to finish that race because she wouldn’t have struggled on by herself.

In the same way, we need others beside us so that we might continue to contend for the faith.

So, yes, contending for the faith is going to take a lot work, but you should be encouraged to expend the energy knowing you don’t have to do it on your own.And we shouldn’t, we should be running beside one another, encouraging one another to contend for the faith. A single soldier doesn’t fight a war, and single Christian doesn’t contend for the faith. We do it together.

Transition: But again, why contend in the first place?

It seems like something that is difficult, it seems like something that I am going to have to work at, even if I have others working with me. So:

Why do I need to contend for the faith?

Baked into that question is the beginning of the answer.

It has to do with that two word phrase “the faith”.

III. What does “the faith” represent?

The Faith refers to the whole body of theology and doctrine found in Scripture. It is not new revelation. It is the teaching that God has given in His Word.

It is the truths about man, the gospel, God, Jesus, the church, the Christian life. Everything found in Scripture false under this heading of “the faith”.That’s what we are to contend for.

Transition: The reason it is so urgent that we contend for the faith is because of false teachers.

Look at verse 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.” ()

ILLUSTRATION: Zero Dark 30 came out, I don’t know, about 7 years ago now. It’s a movie that highlights Seal Team Six’s mission to take out Osama Bin Laden.

After hunting him for 10 years, his position is finally pin pointed, and Seal Team Six gets the call to go in and attack. Under the cover of darkness, flying two stealth helicopters, they land in his compound, sneak into his home and take him out.

APPLICATION: Jude tells us that in a similar way false teachers have staged a covert operation to infiltrated the church and deceive church members, leading them astray and away from Christ.

Notice the “certain people” — false teachers — “have crept in unnoticed”. That’s the idea of the covert operation.

This is not a hypothetical instance that Jude is bringing up but something that is occurring right then in that church.

There are people who have crept in unnoticed with the intention of deceiving Christians.

Transition: But here’s the thing,

This is not an isolated event.

In , Paul highlights the idea that false teachers secretly slipped into the church to to try to lead them astray.

In , Peter warns that false teachers have and will seek to “secretly bring in destructive heresies”.

In , John tells us that false teachers rose up in the church, have left, and are seeking to take others with them. He is warning the church not to follow them.

The idea that false teachers are covertly infiltrating and trying to influence church members is not an isolated event. The churches to whom Jude, Paul, Peter, and John wrote all had to deal with some form of false teaching and teachers, who were secretly trying to destroy the health of the church and lead people astray. Just as it happened in those churches it can happen in ours.

In fact, the apostles predicted it would happen.

Look at verse 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.” ()

Look at verses 17-19

""But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.” ()

False teachers sneaking into the church in an effort to mislead is nothing new.

It is nothing out of the ordinary. It is not an isolated event. It happened in the first century and all throughout the ages since then.And it can happen in our church as well. In fact it is predicted that it will.

So:

IV. Knowing that false teachers can and are trying to infiltrate the church, we must contend for the faith.

That is why we put forth the effort, that is why we expend the energy, that is why we are constantly on guard.

Because false teachers are actively seeking to infiltrate the church, and there may be some here already.Or there may be some false teaching here already.

Listening to this I know what you’re probably thinking,

“ we are a small church, we know everyone in this church. There are no false teachers.”

My first response would be: that might be true might, but it might not be true.

Jude tells us that false teachers have crept in unnoticed, they have literally launch a covert operation so that the people in the church would know that they are false teachers. Just because you know everyone doesn’t mean that you can let your guard down.

Second, even if false teachers haven’t infiltrated the church, that doesn’t mean that their false teaching can’t or hasn’t.

We live in an age where we are constantly bombarded with messages from all over. Some of the messages that we hear very well could be a false message. We may unintentionally bring that message into the church as we discussed things one on one with someone, dialogue in Sunday school, or discuss in Bible study. Just because a false teacher hasn’t physically infiltrated the church, that doesn’t mean that their false teaching can’t.

So we have to be vigilant, we have to always run what we hear in conversation, what we read, what we are taught in Sunday school class, and even from the pulpit, through the grid of Scripture. We can’t assume anything.

Transition: But in order to run the messages we hear through the grid of Scripture,

We have to know scripture.

We can’t even begin to guard or contend for the faith, if we don’t know the faith — if we don’t know our Bible’s.

This is why we have to constantly read Scripture. And not just alone, but need to read scripture in community with other people. Whether that be Bible study or one-on-one discipleship, we need to read scripture, and we need to read it in community.

Transition: But in order for us to do that:

We have to prioritize times of Bible study.

And I think this is where many of us fall short. We are willing to prioritize all kids of other things in our life, but we aren’t willing to prioritize the Scriptures. Instead we let other things consume us, things that have no lasting impact.They consume us. They pull us away from the Bible. They pull us away from community it’s with others.

But instead of giving ourself to those things, we should, we must prioritize Scripture.Our life literally depends on it. False teachers want nothing more than to lead us away from the life giving message found in God’s Word. They don’t want us to know and believe the true gospel — that we are sinners and that sin separates us from God and will result in judgment.They don’t want you to know and believe that Jesus willingly gave up his life for ours. That He willing paid the penalty for our sins, so that we might have a restored relationship with the father and experience eternal life. They don’t want you to know the true gospel, they substitute the true gospel for another gospel, a gospel they want you to believe, a gospel that lead you away from Jesus and salvation.

But we must not let them win.

Instead we must be motivated by the gospel, by God‘s love for us, to learn more about who He is, how he would have us to live, what He wants for us, and where this world is going. We have a God who loves us so much that He sent his only son to die for us, in order to draw us back into relationship. And he’s given us His word in order to tell us about that. We must dive into this wordWe must prioritize God‘s word.The creator, the sustainer, the judge of this entire universe has not only come and died for us but he’s also given us his word to tell us who he is and what he has done for us. This is why we must prioritize His Word.

Conclusion

It’s my prayer that you would do that, that you would see the value and necessity of God’s Word and you would begin to prioritize it this week, and in the weeks and months to follow so that you would be capable of contending for the faith.

False teachers are coming for us, one could launch a covert operation at any moment, and we need to be prepared.

So I challenge, I encourage you to draw a line in the sand today and say, I will be ready.I will be ready because I will be reading my Bible. And not just by myself, but in community with others.

Time of Response

If you are a believer here today, that’s how you can respond to this message.

If you are not a believer, you can respond by turning to Jesus today as your Lord and Savior, by denouncing the false messages of this world, and seeing that the one true message that we need to believe for life and salvation is that Jesus has died for us.

So you can respond today by repenting of your sins and turning to Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

After I pray we’re going to have a moment for us to do that, for Christians and non-Christians alike to respond to the message.

Let’s pray and then let’s respond to this message!