Contending for the Faith

If you have a Bible go ahead and grab it, we will be in the book of Jude this morning. We will just be looking at the first three verses this morning but those three verses are just filled to the brim with doctrine that is needed in the Church today. I love preaching on graduation Sunday because there’s something that feels so special about commissioning our graduates before they “go out into the real world.” The verses that we are going to read this morning is our call to do battle with Satan and his forces. It’s our call to say with Martin Luther, “Here I stand, I can do no other.” As we are going to see in just a moment, it is our call to contend for the faith. As Christians, we aren’t here to play paddy cake with the world. We aren’t here to coddle them as they fall into sin, we’re here to assault the kingdom of darkness. Paul says in Ephesians 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” The problem is not necessarily that the world has become less Christian, the problem is that Christians have become too much like the world. The problem isn’t that there aren’t enough preachers, the problem is that there are too many that aren’t doing any real preaching! The problem isn’t that there aren’t enough churches, the problem is that there are too many churches that do not care for doctrinal integrity, that do not stand firm on the authority and inerrancy of Scripture, and do not hold fast to the things of God. On Wednesday nights, I have repeatedly told our students that it is not our responsibility as Christians to fit in with the world, we’re to be an anomaly. The world shouldn’t be able to wrap its head around us and by no means are we to package the Gospel in such a way that removes its teeth. We cannot make the things of God sexy to a world that hates God. You see it is not just our graduates that are going into a world that is hostile to the Gospel, it’s all of us. So, what should we do about that? Let’s see what the Lord tells us through the pen of Jude. We’ll break these three verses into three main headings: our sanctification, our unity within the Body of Christ, and finally our contending for the faith. Jude 1-3 says

Jude 1–3 ESV

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. 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.

Our Sanctification (Verse 1)

Let’s begin with our sanctification and we see this by looking at three distinct phrases that Jude uses at the end of verse 1. Jude is writing to Christians and he says that believers are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. Called, beloved, and kept. In many ways we see the threefold aspect of salvation in this verse: we were called by God in eternity past, we are the beloved of God now in the present, and we will be kept by God and for Christ in the future. We have been saved past tense, we are saved present tense, and we will be saved future tense. In order for us to contend for the faith, we need to know who we are. Christians aren’t called to comform to the world. It is not our job to match up with the world around us, it is our responsibility to be conformed to Christ. We as Christians wake up every morning with the purpose of being shaped and molded into the image of Christ and living with the one goal of glorifying God above all else. As we become more like our Savior, this is referred to as our sanctification and sanctification is something that we will never perfect in this lifetime. There’s always a greater conformity to Christ, there’s always a higher level of Christlikeness that we can strive towards. None of us have arrived yet. None of us have reach the peak of our faith. None of us can say, “I’ve done all that I can do.” Justification is a once and for all event but our sanctification is an ongoing act that cannot be completed on this earth. Sanctification involves every aspect of our being. A.A. Hodge said that our sanctification involves the entire man, intellect, affections, and will. If we have been justified through faith, every aspect of our lives should be sanctified. Let’s break down these three phrases and see how they relate to our sanctification. Jude says that believers have been called. He isn’t referring to the general call that comes from hearing the Gospel. This is an identifiable mark, it’s a designation. This is who we are as the People of God. We are distinguishable from the world because we have been called by God Himself. We as Christians do not call ourselves, God calls us. Some may not like to hear it but the whole Bible screams, “election”. If we as the people of God are called by God, ultimately we must be called to something and if we are called to something, it must be something that we did not have prior to the call. God does not call us to look the same as the rest of the world. God does not call us to mediocrity and worldliness. If God has called us to something, then we are called to a certain standard that we did not have prior to His calling of us. We are called as the people of God to live as the people of God professing what has made us the people of God. Not only are we called TO something we are called Something and that something is the second phrase that Jude uses, the beloved in God the Father.

To be the beloved of God means that we are cherished by our Heavenly Father. As God the Father perfectly loves Christ the Son, so He also perfectly loves all for whom the Son has atoned. To be beloved in God the Father means that we have been set apart. Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:19-21

2 Timothy 2:19–21 ESV

But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.” Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

We aren’t set apart so we could simply be polished up, we’re set apart so that we would be holy. We’re set apart to do the work of Christ. We are set apart because God knows those that are His. Now if I’m told that God Himself, the very definition of holiness, has set me apart from the rest of the world, then you better believe that I want to take that seriously. If I have been called by God, set apart by God, then my life better not look like the rest of the world. Everything we say, everything we do, everything we think, should be set apart to honor God as holy. Like Adrian Rogers said, everything we say and do should be done as if they were signed off by Christ Himself.

Finally, we reach the third phrase and that is we as believers are being kept for Jesus Christ. Now I see this in two ways and there are loads more but I want to draw attention to these two realities: That which we are kept from and that which we are kept for. We know that Christians are not kept from certain things: we aren’t kept from suffering, we aren’t kept from death, we aren’t kept from trials or persecution, anyone that says that we are kept from these things has never read the Bible cover to cover. We are not kept from naysayers or bad influences or even kept from the impact of sin. What are we kept from then? Well we are saved from the wrath of God that is to come. Paul says in Romans 5:9

Romans 5:9 (ESV)

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

We are kept from the horrors of hell and from rejection by God. Romans 8 is a testimony to the reality that even if death may touch us, we are ultimately kept from a fate far worse than death. Jesus says in Luke 21:16 and 18 that some of us may be put to death but ultimately not a hair on our head will perish. We are kept from falling away. No true follower of Christ will ever be lost. Those for whom Christ has died will be kept until the day of salvation. 1 Peter 1:3-5

1 Peter 1:3–5 (ESV)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

We are kept for an inheritance that we can never lose. Paul speaks of our future glorification in such certain terms that he speaks of it as if it has already happened. We are ultimately kept BY God and FOR God. If God is the power by which believers are kept, no believer will ever not be kept by God. Notice finally, who it is we are kept for. We are kept for Jesus Christ. We as believers are the Bride of Christ and we are waiting for the wedding day when we will see our beloved face to face. If we are being kept for Christ, shouldn’t we do all that we can to be presentable to Him? Doesn’t this encourage you to further your pursuit of sanctification? Jonathan Edwards, in one of his resolutions that he made as a young man, said that he was resolved to live his life with the mindset that Christ was coming within the hour. He understood that there are some things that he just wouldn’t do if he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Christ was coming. May we all live like this. Christ could come within the hour and I pray that He doesn’t catch us living as if we were not desperately waiting for His arrival. I would hate to have Christ return in a moment where my eyes were set more on sin than on Him. What we see from Jude 1 is the call to pursue sanctification and I hope that as we have looked at these verses you see how being called by God, set apart by God, and kept for Christ all points to the need for us to pursue holy living.

Our Unity (Verses 2-3a)

For times’ sake, we won’t spend too much time looking at verse 2 and the first half of verse 3. Jude writes, “May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation.” Our common salvation. Salvation is a shared experience amongst believers. Any believer that is saved has been saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. We see there is a unity within the Body of Christ. Students have asked me what the first thing is that they should do when they leave home and I always tell them to find a church that faithfully preaches the Word of God. Find a church that is doctrinally sound, stands firmly upon the authority of Scripture and do all you can to fall in love with verse-by-verse, exegetical preaching. Find yourself a place that doesn’t just teach the Word, but it preaches the Word. I once heard about a young man once asked Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “What is the difference between preaching and teaching?” Lloyd-Jones said, “Young man, if you have to ask me what the difference is between teaching and preaching, it is obvious that you have never heard preaching, because if you’ve heard it, you will know the difference.” There’s only one way of salvation. There is only one true Church and that’s the Church of Jesus Christ. There is this commonality that we share with every believer that has ever existed. The fellowship that we share is unlike anything that this world could offer us. We really have a singleness of heart because the Church exists for one purpose, really for One person, the Lord Jesus. Lloyd-Jones said, “The unity amongst Christians is a unity which is quite inevitable because of that which is true of each and every one. I sometimes think that that is the most important principle of all. With all this talk about unity, it seems to me, we are forgetting the most important thing, which is that unity is not something that man has to produce or to arrange: true unity between Christians is inevitable and unavoidable. It is not man’s creation; it is, as we have been shown so clearly, the creation of the Holy Spirit Himself. And my contention is that there is such a unity at this moment among true Christians. I do not care what labels they have on them, the unity is inevitable; they cannot avoid it, because of that which has become true of every single individual Christian.” There seems to be so little unity within the church today. Christians can be so cruel sometimes. It amazes me how many people avoid coming to church because they don’t like someone else who is in the church. It’s like we forget that we are an imperfect people that won’t be made perfect this side of Heaven. Here’s the thing, if you think Heaven is only going to have in it the people that you get along with, it will be hell to you. That person that you refuse to forgive, that person you refuse to look at, how does that behavior towards them represent your Savior? It doesn’t! It shows that we are more in touch with the world than with Christ! God knows that we’re difficult people! If God treated me the way that I’ve treated other Christians, I would have been struck down years ago. For a people that have been forgiven so much, we sure do struggle to forgive. If you are a Christian, you are a part of this family and as muddied and bruised as this family can be at times, it is your responsibility to dive in their and love them. The Church is the final apologetic to the world. Will we make mistakes? Sure! But it is how we respond to those mistakes that the world will take notice of! They will either see us tear each other apart or build each other up and it is the responsibility of each limb of the Body of Christ to decide which role that they want to play.

Contending for the Faith (Verse 3b)

Let’s look at the last half of verse 3, it is here where I really wanted to spend the bulk of our time together but I don’t think that will happen unfortunately. Jude ends verse 3 by writing, “I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” This is the call of the hour for the Church of Jesus Christ. We are to contend for the faith. Jude doesn’t write this letter because he just wanted to catch up with some friends, he writes this because he sees it as absolutely necessary to preserve doctrinal integrity. He sees the very heart of the Gospel itself as being under attack. The Greek word that Jude uses in this verse basically means to strive with all of the agony of an athlete competing for a prize. We are to be spent on behalf of the Gospel. We’re to be like Rocky fighting Drago when it comes to the Gospel. We take the punches, we do the rigorous training, we go to war against the power of darkness.

Spurgeon said,

“The great business of the saints is to defend, if necessary with their lives, the faith once delivered to them. We are put in trust with the Gospel. We are trustees of a divine deposit of invaluable truth, and we must be true to our trust at all costs.”

We have been given a treasure of tremendous value in the Gospel. We have been given Christ Himself. Do you understand what wehave in our possession? The Scriptures are unlike anything that we can possess. Understand, I don’t just grab hold of this Book, this Book grabs hold of me and it doesn’t let go. This Word pushes me to tears but also to rejoicing. It changes my thoughts and my actions, it challenges me in ways that nothing else does. This Word rebukes and corrects, it cuts to the core yet heals the deepest hurt, no other book can do this! This book is the very Word of God, speaking with all the authority of God Himself and the truth that is found in this Word must be defended by the blood bought people of God! I shared this one of the last times that I preached about Martin Luther appearing before the Diet of Worms in 1521. Luther was called to the city of Worms for what was basically a heresy trial and as Luther stood before the court, a table was before him that was full of his sermons and books and Johannes Eck asked 2 questions: “Martin Luther, are these your books? And do you recant of what you have written?” The next day Luther stood before the court and said the words that shook the Papacy and the world: “I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.” Here I stand. Church where do you stand? Where are you digging your heels in for battle? It shouldn’t surprise any of us that truth is under attack on every side. The world is not necessarily anti-christian, the world is anti-Christ and the world will only be anti-christian to the extent that the church aligns itself with Christ. The world will not care about the church that looks just like the world but the world will despise the church that looks like Christ. Each of this day is presented with the challenge of whom they will stand for. Will you stand for Christ, His Word, and His truth? Or will you sit down and let the world stroll deeper into depravity?

Martin Luther said,

“If I profess with loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except that little point which the world and the Devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”

Our graduates are going into a world that has no issue with moving the goal line of truth. They are entering into a world that attacks the sanctity of marriage, the life of the unborn, that embraces sin and self instead of Savior so they will need to ask, what kind of voice will I have and where will I stand? We will need to do the very same! We declare the God we know. Jesus Christ is not just another historical figure that we have knowledge of, He is someone that we hopefully love with a supreme passion. I know about George Washington but I don’t love George Washington like I love Jesus and George Washington doesn’t push me to action like Jesus of Nazareth does. Like the apostle John says in 1 John 1:3, we preach that which we have seen and heard. We don’t declare cleverly made fables or philosophical tidbits or moral nicities, we declare Christ crucified and raised from the dead. Not a myth but the defining event of human history. Paul told Timothy that he was to be ready in season and out of season to declare the truths of God’s Word. That means he was to always be ready so I ask, are you ready? Are you ready to contend for the faith that has been delivered to the Saints both in season and out of season because the time has come where people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. They have turned their ears away from the truth and turned aside to myths. Christians as you leave here today, you are entering into a world that despises your King and seeks to tear down the truth. Are you ready to spend and be spent on behalf of the Gospel? Because if you are not willing to agonize, to contend, for the truth, then you are like a house built upon the sand. Christ bore the wrath of God on behalf of sinful man, may we as the redeemed of God bear the wrath of man on behalf of righteous Savior. Where and for whom will you stand? I cannot answer that for you but I know that for me and my house, we will worship and serve the Lord regardless of what the world thinks. Will you contend or will you back down? The choice is laid before each of us today. Let’s pray.