A Faith to Contend For

A Fight for the Faith Jude 1-13

Monday, February 29, 2016

10:01 AM

Jude - the half-brother of Judas is wanting to write a letter on the "Common Salvation" He was however interrupted by an urgent need to write and exhort or urge them to "earnestly contend for the faith that had been delivered unto the saints."

Now when Jude says to, "earnestly contend" he means to fight with all your might.

Perhaps we don't like to think about warfare and battles and military might, but as Dr. Dobson wrote some years ago in Christianity Today defending the churches militancy;

…"today's defenders of righteousness did not invent the analogy to warfare. I grew up in the church singing "Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war" and "Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross." We sang about "Victory in Jesus" and were stirred by "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

Some readers may also remember a popular old hymn called "Faith Is the Victory." The first verse reads, "Encamped along the hills of light, ye Christian soldiers, rise. / And press the battle ere the night shall veil the glowing skies. / Against the foe in vales below let all our strength be hurled; / Faith is the victory, we know, that overcomes the world." That sounds very much like the language of war to me.

Were our forebears who wrote and spoke in these terms using unbiblical analogies? Is the Salvation Army with its military uniforms, "generals," and brass bands operating in contradiction to the Word of God? I think not. The concept of spiritual warfare is deeply rooted in Scripture itself.

How could the writer have overlooked dozens of biblical references to the ancient battle between good and evil? For someone who has spent his professional life studying and teaching biblical history, this oversight is strange indeed. Let's look at just a few of the passages that Christians have quoted and understood for centuries:

* "The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name" (Exod. 15:3; all Bible quotations are taken from the NIV).

* "Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle" (Ps. 144:1).

* "Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights in the day of battle" (Zech. 14:3).

* "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds" (2 Cor. 10:4).

* "Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight" (1 Tim. 1:18).

* "Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs-he wants to please his commanding officer" (2 Tim. 2:3-4)."[3]

Jesus talked about the struggles, battles and conflict a person would have in this way. In one place he said, "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." Matheww 11:12

We are told the only way to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus is to take the violent way of the cross, we must struggle with loyalties for blood and family and our loyalties for Him. It is a way of fighting and violence, and fight we must - as Lawrence Hicks used to say we are at a point where we must "draw out our swords, throw away the scabbard, and fight!"

The reason the need was so urgent is shown in verse 4 - certain men had crept in unawares - These were ungodly men and it says how they were ungodly

They turned the grace of God into lasciviousness ( unbridled lust, excess, licentiousness, lasciviousness, wantonness, outrageousness, shamelessness, insolence)[4] - Denied the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ (interesting terminology)

Jude then talks about previous judgment of past false teachers and prophets. 5-7

Doubters - 5 Destroyed all of those who "believed not" in the wandering in the wilderness. Deserters - 6 - Those angels that Satan took with him when he fell (he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment day) I was wrong Bro. Addison was right in that fallen angels cannot be demons. Defilers -7 - Those who had given themselves up to self-centeredness and immorality God destroyed with fire and brimstone. [1]

These evil men are similar to the Egyptian Rebels, The Fallen Angels, & Sodom and Gomorrah

8 Likewise also these filthy dreamers

defile the flesh,

despise dominion, and

speak evil of dignities.

9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.

A WOE to them - and a list of their characteristics 8-13

Their Heart wasn't right - "Way of Cain" selfishness, hatred, murderTheir Heart Wavered - "Balaam's Error" (Ran greedily after) An all-consuming greed Num. 22:32, Balaam's Doctrine Rev. 2:14 Taught Balak to seduce Israel to worship Baal Their Heart Rebelled - The perishing in the gainsaying of Korah Numbers 16:1-49 He was jealous of his first cousnin's Moses and Aaron, he publicly accused them of abusing their power. [2]

They are false and hypocrites -

clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; - Looked like it would rain - but it was only a smoke screen

trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame;

wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

I want to focus on that word "contend" it means to agonize, or the struggle between wrestlers. The emphasis being on great

We have A Faith To Contend For

Fight For FaithFight of Faith

1 Timothy 6:12King James Version (KJV)

12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

Faithful Fight 2 Timothy 4:6-8

6 For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.

7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

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[M] From <https://soundfaith.com/sermons/121618-title:-%22contending-for-the-faith%22-text:-jude-3...> [M] Ibid[M] Clipped from: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/1995/june19/5t7027.html[M] Blueletter Bible https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?ot=NASB&strongs=G766&t=KJV#lexSearch