Contend for the Faith

There are a lot of people today who think that what we are doing right now is very strange. That we have opened up a very strange, very old book, that we read it because we believe it is true, that we listen to it and try to understand truth by it, and that we try to live in the way that we believe it tells us to live. There are a lot of people today who are fine with Christian morals, but who shun Christian theology. They say, “What’s really important isn’t what we believe, but what we do.” Among these would be Steve Robertson, an activist for world peace. In an article on Huffington Post, Robertson wrote this:

“The salvation of our world is truly possible when each of us have the courage to drop the hot rock of dogmatic religious beliefs and identification...” In other words, salvation, peace, hope, is only possible if we stop believing what we believe. If we dare to say, “There is a truth, and the Bible has that truth, and that truth is Jesus Christ, and only by him can we be saved,” we are branded as bigots, intolerant, and hateful. How do we respond to this? After all, this seems to be clearly opposed to what we read in our passage today. Jude here says to “contend for the faith.” Why does Jude want us to do this?

Contend for the Faith

Well, before we can describe why Jude wants us to contend for the faith, we need to describe what it means to contend for the faith.

Common Salvation: So to understand this, we have to understnad Jude’s original intention. Jude originally sat down to write to them a letter concerning the common salvation. Now, what exactly he is talking about we have a general idea. Apparently, he wanted to write a letter about how probably the Jews and Gentiles are reconciled together by the gospel of Jesus Christ. He wanted to reflect on the saving news of Jesus Christ, and how that has welcomed all different kinds of people to put their faith in Jesus Christ. he wanted to write a letter like Paul did to the Ephesians or Romans, about how GOd’s good news of salvation had brought together many different kinds of CHristians. He thought that was super important. He wanted to give them a clear explanation of what it means to be saved: that because Christ went to the cross and died in our place and rose again from the dead, that we are justified before God by faith alone and that we have life in Christ by faith alone. That there is nothing that we can do to save ourselves, that God’s work on our behalf has made us right with him by grace alone.

Contend: Yet, he says, he found it necessary to tell the Christians to contend for the faith. Now, this verb for contend is an athletic word, we might say, “to strive, to compete, to labor and toil and put our backs to the plow.” He wanted Christians to “contend for the faith.” He wanted us to work for the faith like a football team works to bring home the trophy, like a runner works hard to bring home a medal, like a nascar driver keeps his eyes on the prize to try to bring home the glory. Jude says, with all the labor, effort, toil, sweat, and tears that you use to win the prize, to bring honor to your team, you should work hard for the faith.

The Faith: Now, here the “faith” probably means that body of Christian teaching which constitutes basic Christian doctrine. Jude says, “you hsould work hard to strive for the benefit of the faith.” In other words, he wants us to spread Christian teaching farther out, and deeper down. He wants us to share it with others, and he wants us to push it deeper into our souls. Now, what exactly is that body of essential Christian teachings? Well, even in the New Testament, we have a number of short little creed like statements. So we think of , , , etc.. Well, approximately 1-200 AD, the early Christians compiled all these little statements, and they put together what we call today the “apostle’s creed.” And most Chrisitans throughotu the world have said that the apostle’s creed more or less describes what we mean when we say the “faith.” And This is a modern rendering of the apostle’s creed:

I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth; And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born from the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried, descended into hell, on the third day, he rose again from the dead, ascended to heaven, sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty, thence He will come to judge the living and the dead; I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy, universal Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the flesh, and eternal life. Amen.

So when Jude says, ‘contend for the faith’ this is what he is talking about. The essential teachings of the Christian faith. And it is interesting, in the early church, they would actually ask someone if they believed these things in order to be baptized. They believed that if they were going to baptize them, that this would be very important for them to do. Now, what is important about the apostle’s creed, is not the words themselves, but the God who it describes. Creeds are helpful if a. they help us understand Scriptures better ,and b. if they help us understand God better.

Once for all delivered to the saints: These teachings have been handed down “once for all.” God gave them to his people and will nto change them. Unlike the Mormons or the Catholics, we do not believe that God has changed his revelation. No, God gave these truths to the churhc, “once for all.” Now, when we say that, what we don’t mean is that there isn’t room to grow in our understanding. In fact, we might say that the controversies in teh Church known as the Reformation were in large part, trying to understand the meaning of the “forgiveness of sins.” In fact, if you will look at our own Church’s statement of faith, you will find that it is very similar to this, very ancient, very early Christian creed. This truth was given to us to proclaim and to contend for.

Sacrifice: Now, if we are going to contend for this, what is implied, is that like an athlete, we will sacrifice for it. It is the idea of self-denial, of picking up our cross and following Christ. We are willing to say “no” to other things in our lives in order to say yes to Jesus. So what does it mean to sacrifice or contend for the faith handed down once for all? Well, i think it can mean a handful of things. So for example,

Sacrifice our own desires: Another way that we will have to contend for the faith, is to sacrifice our own desires. That might be hard. THere are tiems that we will really want to do this, but we know we shouldn’t. Where we know that nothing would feel better than telling off our coworker, or clicking on that computer screen, or running away from our problems, but we know that it would be out of step with following Jesus. It means that we are willing to say “no” to ourselves, in other to say “yes” to him. That we take the attitude of John teh Baptist, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” It means that we have to be willing, when we read teh Scriptures and we see something that conflicts with how we think it should be, to change our hearts, our minds, and our own beliefs to match ourselves up with Scripture.

Sacrificing our time: So the simple reality is that contending for the faith means sacrificing our time. Will this mean that sometimes we have to come to church when we don’t feel like it? Yes. Does this mean that we will sometimes miss out on hanging out with our friends to come to church? Yes. Does this mean that sometimes our family will want to do something, and we will have to say, “well, I really can’t do that til after church,” yes. Does this mean that when we’re on vacation, we should search for a church to go to? Yes. The reality is that this is one of the simple ways we as CHristians can pick up our cross and follow Jesus. It is a simple way, and yet it will cost us, won’t it? To say, “no” to the many other things in our lives that might crowd out Christ to follow him.

Sacrifice our relationships: Another thing that this means it that we sacrifice our relationships. It means that we recognize that Jesus is more important than my spouse, that Jesus is more important than my child, more important than my friends. It does not mean that we abandon those people, it doesn’t mean that we don’t even love them more than words can describe, but it means that we say, “Look, we are here to make much of Christ.” When we do that, it might mean that we actually grow closer to our spouse, or to our friends, or to our family. But, At times, making Jesus the core of everything will disrupt those relationships, it will put distance between our spouse and us, it will put distance between our coworkers and us, it will put distance between our friends and us.

This is what it means to “contend” for the faith. It means to sacrifice for it. To learn about it. To love it. To cherish it. To say no to everything else so that he might incrase and I might decrease.

Why was this necessary? So, now, Jude was going to write this really touching, soft, beautiful and uplifiting letter. Why in the world would he change course and say, “no, I’m going to write this letter calling people to contend for the faith, to sacrifice and give up for the good of the gospel.” WHy would he do that? I mean, right here, he says it was “necessary”. What made it so necessary? Why do we have to sacrifice? Well to understand the beginning.

because it protects us from faithlessness.

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James: Now, look back up to vs. 1. Look where it says “Jude” a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. Well, we know from the book of Acts, that James was teh oldest brother of Jesus. He was the pastor of the church in Jerusalem, and tells us that the brothers of Jesus, which includes Jude, were part of the original church planting. Now, this is kind of a roundabout way for Jude to say that he is the brother of Jesus. So why doesn’t he just call himself that? Why does he call himself the servant of Christ and the brother of James instead of saying that he is the brother of James and Jesus. Why? Well, let me explain it like this. I have six brothers. And do you know what it would take for me to call myself their servant? Well, I probably would have to see one of them crucified on the cross and risen again from teh dead. Jude here wants us to know that even though he is the biological brother of jesus, he is his servant because he has risen from the dead. And Jude, like James, was one of the early apostles sent out to deliver the message of the risen one. And It was the apostles who were responsible for the earliest teaching of the church. So Jude was one of the earliest teachers of the, ‘the faith that was once for all handed down to the saints’. Jude, even though he is the brother of Jesus, is also the servant of Jesus, because Jesus Christ is lord of all.

Called, beloved and kept: And Jude, who has taught this truth that Jesus is Lord, has seen many people saved. But Jude knows that it is not his amazing teaching which has saved people. No, it is the calling of God. This is why he says, “to those who are called.” Jude has taught this great deposit, but he knows it really is God who has taught it. Jude believes the words of Paul in , “when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.”

ANd those whom God has called tyo himself through his ministry Jude calls the “beloved in God the Father.” Jude looks at the dear Christians, and sees them as those whom teh Father has called “mine.” That the Father calls them hsi “beloved.” He loves them. He has adopted them as his own children. He has sent his son to pay their debts with their own blood, he has sent his spirit into their hearts so that they might call him, “Abba, Father.”

And kept for Jesus Christ: Now, the ESV which calls this the “kept for” is actually not the best translation. I prefer the translation, “Kept for Jesus Christ.” Just as God has loved us, so the Son has kept us. THis is a major part of this book of the Bible, in fact, the book will end with this statement, “Now to him who is able to keep you...” that hte Son keeps us and holds us. That he is the shepherd of the sheep who when we go astray, leaves the 99 to go and find us. All those who have put their faith in Jeuss CHrist, Christ keeps them and holds them and grapss them, and he will not let them go. Though the mountains shake, and the earth gives way, he will hold on to them.

mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to them. It is to these that Jude greets them, with “mercy, peace, and love.” Now, this is a common greeting in the New Testament. But here is what I want us to see. If Jude is writing to them to tell them to “contend for the faith” then he when he greets them with the blessing that “mercy, peace, and love be multiplied” to them, then his goal of getting them to “contend for the faith” will achieve the blessing of giving them mercy, peace and love. IN other wrods, Jude sees these dear children, whom God has called thorugh the gospel of Christ, through the preaching of his word, who are the beloved of God and who are kept by Jesus, and he is asking that they continue through “mercy, peace and love.” He wants them to have an increasing sense of God’s love for them in their despearation. He wants them to have an increasing sense of “peace”, a decrease of anxiety and an increase of trust. He wants them to have a deeper and more profound sense of God’s love. He wants them to grow in Jesus, and to grow to love the Father more. He wants them to progress in teh faith.

Why does Jude want us to contend for the faith? Why is it so important to sacrifice, to pick up our cross and follow him? Because it is by this that we increase in Christlikeness and grow in his knowledge. And Jude looks at these dear children, and pleads with them that they will contend for hte faith, because there is something that threatens to steal awya this mercy, peace and love, something that can only be thwarted by contending for the faith. Look down to vs. 4

certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people: Jude says, here is the deal, ungodly people have crept in unnoticed. They are here, just as they were forewritten of, and they are here, and they are seeking to snatch away these deeper sense of God’s mercy, this deeper sense of God’s love, this deeper sense of God’s peace. They want to prevent you from growing in Jesus.

who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ: Now, we see that these people seek to creep in to prevent us from growing in the LORD, and how do they do that? They “pervert teh grace of God into sensuality.” THis means that they say, “God has forgiven us, so we don’t need any more rules, because God has forgiven us for everything.” They say, that God’s grace and freedom in teh gospel has given them license to sin in any way they please. This is what we call the sin of “license.” Of course, if they believe that God’s grace has given them license, then they end up denying our Master and Lord Jesus Christ. Because if Jesus is Lord, then he can tell me what to do and what not to do. He can tell me how to live and how not to live. Dear friends, the reason we must contend for the faith, is because there are many who are violently opposed to the lordship of Jesus Christ, and they will do anything to get us to oppose him with us.

Viz: Jonestown: My mother and father grew up in Northern California in Ukiah and Redwood Valley. And in that part of the country, there was a very famous preacher, who was actually originally from Indiana. His kids actually went to school with my parents. He was known for leading a diverse congregation, he was known for his charismatic preaching, he was known for the good works he did for the poor. Politicians sought his guidance and people flocked to him. He was an example around town. People looked up to him. That was, until his church moved to the jungle of Guyana. Panicked family members petitioned the US government seeking help to extract their family, because they knew something was amiss. Congressman Leo Ryan flew down to investigate the allegations in Guyana. When he tried to take some members back who wanted to go home, Jones shot Congressman Ryan. Out of desperation, he led the whole commune to commit mass suicide, killing 918 people.

My mother and father grew up in Northern California in Ukiah and Redwood Valley. And in that part of the country, there was a very famous preacher, who was actually originally from Indiana. His kids actually went to school with my parents. He was known for leading a diverse congregation, he was known for his charismatic preaching, he was known for the good works he did for the poor. Politicians sought his guidance and people flocked to him. He was an example around town. People looked up to him. That was, until his church moved to the jungle of Guyana. Panicked family members petitioned the US government seeking help to extract their family, because they knew something was amiss. Congressman Leo Ryan flew down to investigate the allegations in Guyana. When he tried to take some members back who wanted to go home, Jones shot Congressman Ryan. Out of desperation, he led the whole commune to commit mass suicide, killing 918 people.

People look at someone like Jim Jones, and they wonder, if Christianity is true, how can it be used for such great evil. This is a very real problem for many poeple. They look at certain things that Christians have done and they would have this simple, and I think fair, question, “Doesn’t this discredit Christianity?” Whether it is Jim Jones, or Christians using the Bible to justify slavery, or it is the Munsterites during the Reformation, or it is the crusades, people look at these things and wonder how we can still be Christians because of this.

Of course, his beliefs signalled his direction long before his destruction did. Because he was never really orthodox theologically. He denied the nature of the Bible. He denied Jesus Christ. He called himself God. he told people to call him the savior. But he was no Christ at all, he was one of the antiChrists who led his people along with him striaght to hell. In fact, Jones would later admit that he used the church to try to build a communist paradise.

Of course, this was no news to Jude, the author of this letter. Jude was a pastor in the early church, and he was looking at the church and he was very excited about what was happening. People were getting saved. Churches were sprouting up. The poor were being exalted and the exalted were humbling themselves. There was this real energy. But Jude also was wary. Because he knew that there were many people who

Why contend for the faith? Because it saves us from faithlessness! We must contend for the faith because it will protect us from faithlessness.

Why contend for the faith? Why contend for the faith? Why sacrifice. Why give up our time, our energy, our resources. WHy commit ourselves to reading the bible. Why commit ourselves to going to church. Why say “no” to thegse things so we can say “yes” to Jesus? Because tomorrow, that could be your children, your grandchildren, your friends, your family, youir neighbor. Jim Jones came from a town a lot like Anderson. And he led a lot of people just like you and me. And he deceived tehm and they are dead now. My friends, why must we contend for the faith? WHy must we sacrifice to learn teh faith, why must we sacrifice to teach the faith, why must we make our church healthy? Because we want our church to bej a place where those who are drifting, those whoa re tempted, those who are suffering can find rest and security and refuge and peace. Theology is important. Commitment is important. Sacrifice is important. Becasue there are wolves circling around us right now, and they would love to pounce and snap at the first sign of weakness. For hte good of your soul, for the good of your friends and family, contend for the faith. Commit yourself to healthy chruch attendance, to reading teh Bible, to sharing hte faith, to learning about God. Because it will take all of us, like the rebuilders of Jerusalem, to build this place into what God wants it to be.

Conclusion

We are living in a day and age, wehre many churches in America are emptying themselves of doctrine. They are refusing to talk about theology. They are not calling people to repent. They have left their walls open and wolves have crept in. We are living in a day and age wehre there are many who will lead these people to eternal destruction. But there is hope yet.

In the late middle ages, there was a monk who was sent to Rome. And he was particularly excited to go to Rome. He had been weighed down by his consceince and his sins and his guilt. He was looking forward to seeing the great city where the pope was. He hoped it would be a mountaintop experience that would change his life. But he got there and behold, the city of Rome was filled with every kind of wickedness. there was a corner for evyery one of the seven sins. The chruch looked down on teh poor and it exploited their longings for God to make a quick buck. As he watched the churhc offficials prostitute themselves after every kind of maliciousness, he was quickly disillusioned. And he came to this shrine. And this shrine was the steps of Pontius Pilate’s palace that had allegedly been brought over from Jerusalem. And to ascend the stairs was supposed to earn great favor with God. And as he ascended the stairs, he was supposed to recite a couple hail marys. And as he climbed up the stairs reciting out of rote his hail mary’s, he ascended to the top, and Martin Luther was rumored to have said, “Who knows if any of it is true.”

That event led Luther to want to know the true God of the Bible better, and it led him in desparation to the SCriptures. And there, Luther came to a firm understanding of the gospel of Christ, discovering anew the deposit of the faith, the good news that jesus came from heaven above, and he died on teh cross for my sins, and whoever bleieves in him can have eternal life. And as Luther rediscovered this good news, his heart was changed, and he led his church and many of his people to a fresh discovery of the gospel.

Dear friends, if we contend for the faith, a new day can dawn. If we contend for the faith, the gospel will shine forth again. If we contend for the truth, the wolves of Satan will be powerless to stop the kingdom of God. If we contend for the faith, it will protect us from faithlessness. Will you contend? Let’s pray.

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