Earnestly Contend for the Faith

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. We greet you this morning in Jesus name. Turn with me to Jude this morning. I would like to look at the book of Jude this morning and especially noticing four words in the King James translation in verse 3. [00:00:37] I've entitled my message, Earnestly Contend for the Faith, and words that are taken out of, I think, verse 3 here. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called, mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. [00:01:13] For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. and the angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation [00:01:45] he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh are set forth as an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion and speak evil of dignities yet Michael the archangel when contending with the devil [00:02:16] he disputed about the body of Moses durst not bring against him a railing accusation but said the Lord rebuked thee 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 woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward and perished in the gainsaying of Corrie. These are spots in your feasts of charity when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear, [00:02:51] clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, trees with fruit withered without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, Wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever And Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied of these saying Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all And to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds [00:03:23] Which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts, and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's person and admiration because of advantage. But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. [00:03:56] These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit, but ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. and of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them out of the fire hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. [00:04:29] Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and ever. Amen. As I was looking at and studying the book of James for this message, I was glad for the first three and I think the last six verses here. [00:05:01] The verses in between there are pretty negative, but by the grace of God, I'd like to consider those as well as the positive ones this morning. This book, I am told, probably would have been titled Judas, except for the fact that Judas Iscariot spoiled that name. And so they changed that name just a little bit to soften the impact, the negative impact. It's interesting to notice how the author of this book introduces himself. [00:05:32] A servant of Jesus Christ, he says here in that first phrase. Other translations say a slave of Jesus Christ He could have called himself something else of Jesus Christ He was a half-brother of Jesus, if I'm not mistaken At least that is the general understanding He is a brother of James, the first bishop in Jerusalem And James was a half-brother of Jesus And so I believe that was the case In the first verse here, we notice also to whom it is written. [00:06:08] It is written to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. All of us are called, not all of us are sanctified and preserved unless indeed we have made that gospel message personal in our lives. Now, I'm not saying that, I'm not saying that condemningly, I'm just saying that God's people, for God's people, all three are true. For all of us, we are called. We are called to serve him. [00:06:40] And then the greeting there, mercy, peace, and love, just a little bit, right? No, be multiplied. It's abundant mercy and grace, not grace, but mercy and love and peace that is wished to us. Verse 3, I don't think I ever caught what verse 3 is saying until I was reminded of this by somebody else. He wanted to write of the things that we have in common [00:07:13] I think what Jude is saying was that I wanted to just write an encouraging letter About the common salvation or the salvation that we have in common The things that we have in common But he was, as he thought of doing this He recognized that it was needful for him to write another letter or something else to them. I am going to be reading some of the things that I jotted down from a different rendering [00:07:48] because I thought the Berkeley translation was just, just was truer to what I believe Jude is actually saying. And perhaps it's just that it puts it in our own language. Instead of earnestly And it's saying the same thing. I recognize that, but I appreciate that way of saying it. We are to vigorously defend the faith which was once and for all delivered to the saints. [00:08:23] Why do we need to vigorously defend the faith? Because there is a falling away, and that is what he is talking about here. In verse 4, we see that it says here that certain men crept in. The Berkeley says certain people have sneaked in. Again, it's saying the same thing, but they came in without being observed. And the interesting thing is what it says about these men. [00:08:54] He says these men were marked for judgment longstanding. Now, does that mean that God looks at you and decides, no, you're not going to make it? And looks at the one sitting beside you, yeah, you're going to make it? Uh-uh. That is not the case. God knows which one of us will decide right. But we are free moral agents, friends. And we may choose what is right. And may God help us to be of the people that are building the church. Give them an opportunity to make the right decision. It's because of their or our sin that we will be judged. [00:09:36] Grace is great to forgive sins, but we dare not take it for granted. We dare not presume upon grace. Looking at the following verse, it's verse 4, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness. I'm not sure exactly what Jude is saying there, but if I think like Paul wrote in Romans, well, let's just go ahead and sin because there's plenty of grace there. He said, also, God forbid, don't be caught in that trap, I think is what he is saying. [00:10:10] We dare not corrupt it, deprave it, pervert it, the grace of God. And that comes from the Berkeleys as well. Looking at verses 5 and 6, we see that there were people who made a good beginning here. God saved the children of Israel out of Egypt. The angels were on God's side in verse 6. But he's saying something happened along the way. Somebody has said that every journey begins with the first step. [00:10:44] We have to take the first step to make that journey. But that's not enough. We need to continue. And in verse 5 and 6 we see that. The people that came out of Egypt, that were delivered out of Egypt, some of those people were destroyed. Why? Because of their unbelief. And that same thing can happen to you and to me. I don't know. We could draw a line on the whiteboard here. One end signaling the beginning of life, the other end signaling the end of life. And I'm not sure where I would come on that. [00:11:17] Pretty obviously, pretty much toward this side, if this signals the end of life. I don't know how close. And that's not really that important. The important thing, though, is that we continue in doing the good things that we began doing. Wendell talked to us about Josiah. And I was listening. I don't know if I heard everything that Wendell said about Josiah. But the thing that is a little bit troubling about Josiah is that he followed the Lord faithfully. [00:11:51] If I'm not mistaken, it was until, was it his uncle, Hilkiah? It was until the high priest died. And after that, it wasn't quite the same. Solomon began well. But where did Solomon end up? There are other people who began well. Hezekiah even did things and I am amazed when I read about Hezekiah but toward the end of life Hezekiah had at least one relapse where he was congratulated concerning his recovery by people from Babylon [00:12:28] well, that was alright but why did he show them all of his treasures? was it because that's where his heart was? I don't know But I'm just saying that we dare not let down our guard. We must persevere. We must earnestly contend, as the King James says. It was interesting to me that not all the renderings said earnestly contend or an equivalent of that. [00:12:59] Some of them just said contend. And I believe I understand why. I think there was an adjective there and they weren't sure whether it went with the first part or the second part. Those who said it belongs to the second part said earnestly contend or vigorously defend. And some others said that he was pressed. He was, the conviction came on him. This is what you need to do. And that came earnestly. [00:13:31] But it is important that we run well Whether you are at the beginning of your Christian life Whether you're at the middle or whether you're close to the end And that is one thing that I would like to remind us of As I was studying for this message I just remembered one of the things that my mother-in-law said to her daughter Her oldest daughter When they were talking about, they knew that we were getting close We were right to the end of life [00:14:03] When she said, I have no doubts, I have no fears And friends, that's a blessing I know of many fine Christian people who, getting to the end of life Just simply had some doubts and some fears And this is the work of Satan We need to recognize it or perhaps it is just simply God is wanting us to examine our lives. But friends, I would like for us to defend the faith in such a way that when the time comes that we're at death's door, [00:14:41] we can say, I have no doubts, I have no fears. These words will not be spoken by us if I am just doing enough to get by. Just sliding in under the wire, so to speak. You're not going to say, I have no doubts, I have no fears, I'm afraid, when you get there. But it is important that we give it our all. That we do what we can. [00:15:12] And we talked about this in the council room this morning. I really wasn't going to say it this morning. But there is one thing, and I recognize that this is one aspect. A number of years ago, I might as well say where it was because you can figure it out. We were members at Fairhaven and this time of year, sometimes we had good attendance in our service, sometimes that attendance dwindled down. [00:15:49] And it had to do with a phenomenon of our day called camping. And I don't know where you are in this. I don't think I am against camping, although I have never been an avid proponent of it myself. I don't think I object to people camping. But I will admit that when people miss out on Sunday morning services, I wonder about their priorities. Can we never miss out? [00:16:22] Well, I think you know the answer. This coming Wednesday evening, we won't be here because we have a meeting in Pennsylvania on Thursday morning. And we also have a meeting in Kansas the 23rd or the 22nd, which means we won't be here the 23rd. There are times when we will miss out. But I would like for us to think about those things seriously and seriously consider, should we or should we not? And I say that because of the blessing that I miss when I'm not here, and not only the blessing that I miss, but the blessing that the rest of the congregation misses when you're not here. [00:17:06] I think we do well to consider this carefully as we earnestly contend for the faith. And again, you know that what I am saying, I am not saying you may never miss, but I am saying consider it carefully before you decide to not be at our services. Going on in Jude, verses 7 and 8, verses 7 and following, I understand that what he is saying here about Sodom and Gomorrah, [00:17:44] These people were living in sexual immorality. They were living depraved lives and God passed judgment on them. And the thing, the reason that Jude mentioned that is obvious from the last part of the verse. These are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. And I think the warning for us is that if we live in that kind of a life and we don't repent from it, I think he is saying this is your lot. This is what you will suffer to be damned eternally. I would like to say also that even when we do repent, there are certain things that follow after. [00:18:28] However, God takes away the punishment for the sin, but there are certain ways in which we reap, and I don't think I have to be more explicit than that, but just simply to say that even when we repent, there is a certain reaping that goes with sin. So be careful, young people, about the kind of life that you live. If you live a life that is pure, I have never heard somebody say, [00:18:59] Oh, I wish I would have lived a less pure life. Never. Nobody, I don't think anybody repents of that kind of a life. Michael the Archangel, in verse 8, dropping back to verse 8 Filthy dreamers, defile the flesh, despise dominion, speak evil of dignity, speak evil of people that are in authority We have some legislation that has bothered some of you enough to send me an email about it [00:19:36] And I will admit that what I see in some pending legislation is not comforting. But I think we do well to remember how we speak of those in authority. I think we need to be careful that we do not speak evil of those people who are in authority. We looked at the word blasphemy in our Sunday school lesson. Does that mean just blasphemy against God? And we were told that it means what we say about our fellow men as well. [00:20:12] And I think we need to be careful how we talk about those in authority. In verses 12 and 13, you notice what I said, certain men crept in unawares in verse 4. And then in 12 and 13, we see that we're not talking about people that are out there. We are talking about people that are a part of the body of Christ. I say that because of what verse 12 says. [00:20:42] These are spots in your feasts of charity, in your love feast. I think this is talking about communion. These are people right from within the congregation. And so it behooves us to recognize that. Then it says what these people are like in verses 12 and 13. There are clouds without water, no rain, just wind. They're carried about of winds. Trees whose fruit is withered. In some of the other renderings it says autumn trees, or trees in the autumn, but there's no fruit. [00:21:20] They're twice dead. They're not just dead, but the idea that I get is they're plucked out by the roots, they're cut up for firewood, maybe even they're ready for the burn heap, I guess is what I would say. Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever I trust that this is not about any one of us But the fact that I said this is talking, I think Jude was talking to the church [00:21:51] It behooves us to look at ourselves carefully In verse 16, these are murmurs One of the other translations said, I think the Berkeley says, These are grumblers complaining of their lot who go in accord with their passions and whose mouths give vent to arrogant remarks while they flatter to one's face in hope of gain. Am I guilty of grumbling? I'd be glad for a nice soaking rain. [00:22:25] But I hope I don't grumble and complain about the weather. You know, when it starts raining like it did yesterday morning, sometimes I just wish it would just really let it down because it seems in my mind as though our crops need it. But I don't want to be a grumbler. I don't want to complain. And I think none of us do. The last two remarks here talks about arrogance and about flattery. [00:22:56] And those are things that we do want to avoid. Saying something nice to a person's face to get our way is what he is talking about here. The next several verses talk about the mockers, talk about people that separate themselves sensual. And then it says something here that is interesting. In verse 19, having not the spirit. Now, these are people who separate themselves here. [00:23:31] Interestingly enough, I looked in several other translations, I found the word that these are agitators. Sometimes I hear people saying, well, this is what so-and-so said. and it's just kind of like something agitating in the bottom of a pot. And interestingly enough, these people often stay with us but they just kind of keep things stirred. And I trust I'm not looking at anybody like that. [00:24:07] But if you notice what Jude has to say here, it is not good. What do I do when I hear that kind of thing? I think we do well to just simply be very careful what we say. And I think we do well to identify ourselves. I was in a conversation, not with any of you brethren, where I heard some of these very words. And I'm not sure what I should have done. [00:24:42] I said some to the person that he was talking about, a fellow worker, and believe me, he would have a right to say some things about the fellow worker, because I have not seen a worker like this, I don't think, in all of my days. But by the same token, that man has a soul for whom Christ died And I would love to spend eternity in heaven with that man And I have been working at him and I hope to continue by God's help to work with that person [00:25:17] This other brother said, this other, no he was not a brother, he was not a Christian Said that if so and so would have happened, I would have killed him well, he may have I didn't rebuke the man at the time but I think I have some homework to do yet in just simply reminding that person that the other person is responsible for what the person that is the cantankerous, the thorn in the flesh he is responsible for what he does [00:25:48] and when he throws wrenches and sometimes hits people he is going to have to give account for that But the thing that I'm saying is that if I have ill feelings toward that man, I have to give account for that. And this other person who said I would have killed him, if he kills him, who is going to give account for that? It's the person who does the killing, not. And I just simply, I think I have work to do in just simply talking with this friend. So you can pray for me that I might say what I should say. [00:26:21] But I am glad that he doesn't stop with verse 19. I am glad that there is more between verses 3 and 20 than just those verses. Ending on a more positive note, it says that build yourselves on your most holy faith. And how do we do this? Do we do this by speaking evil of somebody or by speaking well of him? And if somebody is caught doing something wrong, what do I do about it? [00:26:52] Do I confront that person or do I speak to somebody else about it? Sometimes we do talk among ourselves, but it dare not stop there, I don't believe. But we need to confront people with things that they say or do that are not pleasing to God. We need to pray, but it doesn't just say to pray. Do you notice? It says, pray how? In the Spirit. I think what he is saying is we need to pray as people of God that are filled with the Spirit [00:27:31] and we need to let that Spirit work in us to pray as we ought. I am reminded of the words in Romans where, I think it was in Romans, where he says, When we don't know how to pray, the Spirit gives utterance where we fall short. And so, I think we need to remember that as we see how we are to pray here. We are to keep ourselves in the love of God. We are to wait or to look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life. [00:28:08] And then he says something interesting here. The Berkeley said, convince some who doubt. And here it says, and of some, that's the, I think that's the previous one. No, it's verse 22. Of some have compassion, making a difference, and others say with fear, pulling them out of the fire. I'm not sure what you read in this, but I think sometimes we need to encourage people, sometimes we need to rebuke them, pull them from the fire. [00:28:39] But there is one thing that I find here, we are to have pity on others, but notice what he says along with that. The pity, this is from the Berkeleys, others say with fear of pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment that is spotted by the flesh. I think this is where the Berkeleys says that we should do it with pity. We're to save some with pity, we are to snatch some from the fire. [00:29:15] On still others have pity mingled with great caution. And then he says why we should have great caution, loathing even the garment that's polluted by the flesh. It has a different way of saying that here. Why is he saying that? I think of the words of Paul where he said, Let him that thinketh he stand take heed lest he fall. I think as we work with people [00:29:45] sometimes we're tempted to just simply say well I'm glad that's not me is that a good well I guess it's good to be glad that that's not where we are but I think we need to remember the fact that we are prone to stumbling the same as our brethren are and then what is called a doxology here encouraging words and notice about whom the words are spoken [00:30:17] notice where our emphasis is on verses 24 and 25 now unto him who is the him that is able to keep us from falling Jesus Christ now unto him now unto Jesus Christ who is able to keep you from stumbling or falling and to present you faultless In the presence of his glory with abounding joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and dominion before all time, now, and forevermore. [00:30:57] Shall we bow and pray?