Keep the Faith

Big Idea

Tension: How do Christians keep the faith in a day where many are under God’s judgment?

Resolution: By remembering the prophecies about the last days, by remaining in God’s love through building themselves in the faith and prayer, and by reaching out wisely to those who are perishing.

Exegetical Idea: Christians keep the faith by remembering the prophecies about the last days, by remaining in God’s love through building themselves upin faith and prayer and waiting and by reaching out wisely to those who are perishing.

Theological Idea: Christians contend for the faith by remembering God’s promises, by remaining in God’s love, and by reaching out for God’s lost children.

Homiletical Idea: We contend for the faith by remembering God’s word, remaining in God’s love, and reaching out with God’s mercy.

Introduction

Well it’s good to be back with you all today as we continue our study of Jude. A couple of weeks ago, we started this study by talking about this call to “contend for the faith.” And we really emphasized that we contend for the faith because it protects us from faithlessness. And then two weeks ago, we talked about God’s judgment on unbelievers. And we really talked about what happens to those who are faithless, to those who don’t contend for the faith. But, while we had given a few preliminery remarks, we didn’t really go into too much detail about how we contend for the faith.

Contend for the Faith

The Faith: So you’ll remember the word “the faith” from earlier. And we talked about how when you are reading your Bible and you see the word “faith” with an article in front of it, that is probably referring to the general body of Christian teachings, to general summaries of Christian teachings. And we see a number of these teachings throughout the New testametn, we see one in Titus, another in 1 Timothy, another in Philippians, even, arguably, in Matthew. So there are a lot of these summaries of Christian doctrine throughout teh Bible. Well, in the 1st century, some of these Christians got together, and they summarized “the faith” in what we today call 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.

Contending for it: This teaching, the teaching of the church, the “apostle’s creed,” forms the framework for Christian belief. And so Jude told us to “contend” for it. Now, in Greek, there is this word, ἀγονιζω which is commonly translated as “fight,” like in 2 Timothy. And It is where we get our English word “agonize.” WEll, the word for “contend” in vs. 3 is an intensified form of ἀγονιζω, it is kind of like a “greatly agonzie” for the faith. ANd it is commonly used to describe the athletic world. So to contend for the faith, is to “train ourselves” in it. It is to work hard, and labor and sweat and toil so that we might grow in the faith. Like a football team does 2 a days, like a wrestler cuts weight to make his weight, like a nascar driver focuses himself and prepares himself for the fight, so we are to “contend” for the faith. Contend, work hard, labor, toil, agonize for the faith. Now, how do we do that? Well, there are three big ways that Jude wants us to contend for the faith, three concrete actions that we can take to contend, to fight, to agonize.

Remember God’s Word

the first one is to “remember God’s word.” Look at what it says here in vs. 17-19

Beloved: first, notice how Jude calls his listener’s the “beloved.” Our minds are brought back up to vs. 1, to those whoare teh “beloved in God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ.” So Jude says those people whom the Father has chosen for himself, who he has called to himself, whom he has adopted by himself. Here’s what we need to learn from this. God’s word is for GOd’s people. God speaks to his beloved. says “my sheep hear my voive, and I know them, and they follow me.” God has a word for his people.

Remember the predictions of the aposltes of our lord jesus Christ: Jude says, hey people of God, remember that the apostle’s spoke to you. Remmeber their words. remember the Scriptures of the apostles. He says, “Hey Jesus Christ has sent messengers to you,” remember God’s speakjers, his messengers. They spoke to you. Now, that begs the question, who are the messengers? They are the authors of Scripture.

they told us of the last days: He says, “Look they told us in the last days there will be scoffers following their own ungoldy passions.” And here, Jude is not quoting a Scripture, so much as he is summarizing the prophecies and sweep of history. He is summarizing this fact. That from the very days of Cain and Abel until his time, and even until now, there has been the people of Cain, who have scoffed at God’s ways and they have followed after their own ungodly passions. They have been driven by their temptations, by their immorality, by their desires for evil.” Jude says, “Hey do not be surprised that the seed of the serpent is alive and well in our world today, isn’t that what teh SCriptures have told us?

The people who cuase divisons, are worldly, without the Spirit: He says, here is how you identify the scoffers following their own passions. They are those who cause diviosn, that is, they are those who like to go into churches and split them, who like to cause disunity, who like to say, you are on my side or you are not. THey are “worldly.” They are those who are only concerned with teh things of the flesh. They are those who are driven by the pursuit of the flesh. THey are those who do not have the spirit, who are “devoid of him.” They have not been born anew, regenerated by teh Spirit. They don’t follow him. they don’t obey him. They don’t care about him.

The problem: Some people Panic: SO here is the problem that Jude is addressing. He is talking to Christians, who are discouraged and frustrated because people are causing trouble in the church. They are scared because there is so much evil in the world. They are angry because people have done and said sinful things to them. And Jude is addressing this panic, by basically saying, “Look, what did you expect? Don’t you remember your Bible, don’t you remember the Scriptures? Of course there are sinful people, causing problems, but Dopn’t you know who wins in the end?

The solution: Remembering God’s Word: Here is how you keep yourself from panic at all the evil in the world: you remember God’s word. We should hold God’s word so near and dear to our hearts, that we become shaped by it. We should be disciplined in reading it, so that we soak it up and we begin to ooze Scripture out of us. SO that when we see evil, when we see wickedness, we can take heart because we know who wins in the end. So, you have heard me talk about this before. But I am just going to say, how can you remember God’s word if you don’t read it? So if you’re not reading God’s word currently, it’s okay. Here’s what I’m going to recommend, just sit down for about 15 minutes every day, and just read a chapter or two from teh Bible. Probably start with the gospel of Mark. And mayube as you sit down, just write down 2 or 3 things every day that sitck out to you, or a couple questions that you have. And as you do that, as you regularly spend time in God’s word, over time, it will continue to increase, and grow, and multiply so that you cannot help it. Just like if you water a little plant over time, it will need more water, so you and I as we pour scripture into ourselves, will continue to grow in our desire and hunger for God’s word.

The result: A faith in God: What reading God’s word will do is to put a confidence in our bones. It will help us to understand all the evil and wickedness al around us. But it will help us to trust in God. Just as God rescued Lot from the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, just as God rescued Israel from Egypt, just as God rescued David from teh fists of Goliath, so God will rescue us from every evil in teh end. Remember God’s word.

Remaining in God’s Love

Secondly, we remain in God’s love.

Keep yourselves in the love of God: Look right there in vs. 21, see wehre it says “keep yourselves in teh love of God,” that is, gramatically, the center of vs. 20-21. It is the only true imperative, and so all teh commands around it get their force from it. So all these other words define how we keep ourselves in teh love of God. Now here by the love of God, I believe that he means the love which comes from God. So Jude says here, keep yourselves in the love of God, stand steadfast there, grasp the rock of ages.Plant yourself like a tree in teh sun, like plug in a socket, like a vine on a tendril, into Christ. Put yourselve in front of the places where you will experience all of God’s love and God’s grace and God’s mercy.

Who keeps who? Now, because you are all reading through the New Testament, and you have already studied Jude, and you have it all memorized, you’re asking, “wait a minute doesn’t tell us that we are “kept by or for Jesus Christ” and doesn’t say that God is the one who is able to keep us from stumbling and to present us blameless?” HOw in teh world do we make sense of this? Do we keep God or does GOd keep us? Do we hold onto God or does GOd hold onto us? This is a good question. And, in a word, the answer is “yes.” This is what some have called the “perseverance of the saints.” And that that long phrase means is those who are truly saved will persevere in their faith til teh end. It does not mean that Christians don’t mess up, and sometimes in really terrible ways. It just means that God’s grace will never let go of us, and eventually, like the prodigal son, we will coem back to him. True Christians “persevere” to the end. But, we could, just as easily, call ig the “preservation of the saints.” Because Christ is the one who keeps us. And Christ is the one who holds onto us. And after all doesn’t say that he will finish the good works that he began in us on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. So all those that God preserves will persevere to teh end. Let me put it like this. In his wonderful book on Lament, Mark Vroegop, who is a friend of mine, tells the story of when his daughter Sylvia, was stillborn. And he and his wife were just horrified by this and went through a prolonged period of lametn and pain. And his brother-in-law emailed a famous pastor named John Piper, asking if he would send Mark a couple of words of encouragement. So John Piper, wrote to him, and one of the things that Dr. PIper said to him was to, “keep trusting in the one who keeps you trusting.” Keep trusting in the one who keeps you trusting. Keep yourselves in the one who keeps you. Persevere in the one who preserves you. Keep trusting in the one who keeps you trusting.

So how do we do that? Well, there are three ways that this text calls us to persevere.

Building yourselves up in your most holy faith: First, we “build oursevles up” in your most holy faith. Now, look right there at that word “yourselves.” Now, notice here that he doesn’t say the word “yourself.” No, he says “yourselves.” This is plural. And in fact, this idea of “building” is talking about a physical structure like a temple, such as we see in . So here is the idea, that we are to be part of the building of the “most holy faith.” That as we gather together on Sunday morning, we are building ourselves up into the temple for the Holy Spirit. Here is what this means: you cannot do the Christian life alone. Listen, as we gather together, we feed each other the rich diet of God’s word. But if we are wandering on our own, hopping from church to church, skipping church because we really didn’t feel like coming, then we will starve. Listen to me, nobody makes it to heaven alone. one of the means of grace, one of the ways that God keeps his people, is through teh chruch.

1. Building yourselves up in your most holy faith

Praying in the Holy Spirit: Secondly, we pray in the Holy Spirit. That doesn’t mean that we “pray to the HOly Spirit.” No, the Holy SPirit is our collaborater, helper, and partner in prayer. No, he comes alongside us, and prays with us. That is why when we gather to pray, we pray to the Father, by the Son, and to the SPirit. And praying in the SPirit helps to keep us. As we lean into him through prayer, he fills us more and preserves us.

Waiting for the mercy of our lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life: But the third way we keep ourselves in teh love of God, is by waiting for the mercy of our lord jesus Christ. We wait and we hope. We look forward to the day when Christ will come back and make all things new, where he will bring the kingdom and there will be no more pain. You see, we hold on by looking up, and staring at Christ.

Keeping ourselves in the life of the Trinity: Now, as we look back on this, we can see that there is this Trinitarian shape to the keeping ourselves in the love of God. you see, we receive the love of god by keeping ourselves in the life of the Trinity. We persevere by growing in this relationship iwht God. You see, the life of the Trinity keeps us with God. We keep ourselves in teh love of the one who keeps us. We trust in the one who keeps us trusting. We persevere in the one who preserves us.

Reaching out with God’s mercy

So, there’s one more way that we contend for the faith. We remember, we remain, and we reach out. Here, Jude gives us three ways to reach out to those who do not follow God.

Contrast: Now, in these last 2 verses, what we see is that Jude makes some distinctions about how to help those who are walking away from God. And can’t we just be thankful that God is so good, because different people require different responses. So for some people, he’s going to say, you have to be pretty frank, and with others, you have to be merciful. And so we reach out with God’s mercy, but we do it wisely. We do it, trying to understand those people that we’re talking to, and trying to consider what way would be best to reach themn.

show mercy - The first way that we reach out is we reach out with mercy. And we do that with those who doubt. Now, probably what he is referring to here, is people who have genuine questions and who really want to understand the gospel, but they’re not sure. THose people who are doubting, who are wrestling wtih weighty realities, they need mercy. You show them love, and you be kind and gentle. I would say this is one that is the hardest to do sometimes. Because we so want them to share in teh gospel, we so want them to come to know you, that sometimes we overpower them. But sometimes these poeple just need our love and kindness and charity.

save them by snatching them out with fire: But other people, they need us to get real frank real quick. There are some who need to be woken up and shaken. And they need to be told, “Listen, if you don’t turn around, then you will go to hell in a handbasket.” I have a good friend who works in a ministry with a lot of drug addicts and with a lot of reformed criminals. And if you listen to his sermons, man he sounds like he is pretty harsh. But that is because he is trying to snatch people out of the fires of hell. It is common today to downplay this old fashioned “fire and brimstone” approach. ANd a lot of people definitely do overdo it. But some people, they just need to be woken up, and they need to be told about the goodnews of Jesus Christ.

save some by hating the garment stained by flesh: Finally, to some we show them “mercy with fear, hating even the garments stained by teh flesh.” Now, what is absolutely key to that phrase is that last word, “flesh.” THat word for “flesh” refers to our fallen, corrupt, condition. So what this is talkigna bout is that there are some who are living in a comfortable life that allows them to sin as much as they can. And I think what Jude is saying, ist hat we try to live lives of holiness that are, on the one hand, fearful, that is reverencing God, but merciful. We try to chart the middle course between legalism and license. We try to walk holy lives, but lives of mercy. And the hope is that as we follow God and build friendships with unbelievers, they will see where we are at and they will turn and follow God.

How do people in your lives need to hear this? Now, here’s the question. Are tehre people in yoru lfie who do not know Jesus? Well, which one of these do they need. Maybe it is a child who has wandered and strayed from teh faith. WHich one of these do they need? Do they need you to be merciful because they’r really wrestling and struggling with their faith? Maybe they are headed towards destruction and making all kinds of bad decisions, and they need you to warn them. Maybe they’re living, their comfortable, sinful life, and the way to reach them is by living a merciufl, yet fearful life. The key to reaching people is by knowing which way they need you to reach them. WHo are they? How do they need you to evangelize to them>? What do you do?

These three ways are how we contend for the faith. We remember God’s word, we remain in God’s love, and we reach out with God’s mercy. These three things so much describe the Christian life. We remember God’s word, we remain in God’s love, and we reach out with God’s mercy. And as we’re doing these things, they work like three oarsmen on a boat, propelling us a ltitle bit closer to home. As we do these three things, as we contend for the faith in this way, God is bringing us one step closer to home. Let’s pray.