Contend Earnestly for the Faith (Book of Jude)

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. So turn, if you would, to the book of Jude. The book of Jude, this is the second to last book in the Bible, right before Revelation.

Defending the Faith in Jude

And the title of this morning's message is Defending the Faith. Another term that's associated with this is apologetics. And of course, we're not saying that you should apologize for your faith. Apologetics means to give a defense or to give a response.

Normally, in a message like this, I would take, you know, what the unbelievers are saying and kind of give the reply. I've preached that message before. This will be a little different. But let me just quote this verse.

First Peter 315 says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense or to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

Let's pray. Lord, I ask that you would give your word success this morning. For you have said, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

Lord, I ask in faith that you would use your word, this message, to strengthen and encourage your people, I pray. It's in Jesus name. Amen. Let's begin the book of Jude, which only has one chapter, verses one and two.

Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ. Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation.

I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints. So just a background about the author and the statements. Jude identifies himself as a servant or a bondservant of Jesus Christ.

The Greek word doulos speaks of a bondservant or even a slave, one who gives up their will for the will of another. In scripture, believers are often referred to as servants or bondservants. In scripture, it also refers to believers as soldiers.

Just an illustration, if you go into the military, part of that is you're going into the service to defend your country. You are putting your life at risk. You are even willing to give your life because you think your nation is worth defending.

Well, so it is with the Christian life. It takes dedication. It requires that a person be faithful. The Marines have a saying.

What is it?

Semper fi, which means always faithful. So just as the soldier in the military defends the nation, so we as soldiers of Jesus Christ should defend the faith once for all delivered. We need to be faithful in that.

Jude could have lived his life his way on his terms. Instead, he gave his life to the defense of the gospel. He identifies himself as a bondservant, but you notice he also says that he's the brother of James.

Well, James was the leader of the Jerusalem church and the author of the epistle of James. And we know one thing about James. James was the half-brother of Christ. So if Jude is his brother, guess what?

Jude is the half-brother of Jesus. In Mark 6, verse 3, we learn that Jesus had four half-brothers and at least two sisters. And two of those brothers, the most well-known in that group, were James and Jude.

So this is who Jude is. Who is he writing to? He's writing to all those who are called, all those who are sanctified and preserved. In other words, he's writing to a general Christian audience. And again, he says in verse 3, Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

So this is the main context here, that the faith needs to be defended over and against false brothers. Because look at what he says in verse 4. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Usually in a message of apologetics and defending the faith, I'm spending my time saying, okay, this is what the atheists are saying. Here's what the unbelievers are saying. And here's our response. Well, that's not the context here.

Jude is saying that men have crept into the church. So his burden and really my burden is, okay, what are Christian ministers saying? What are people within the church saying? Because that's what Jude is talking about.

They have crept in. And what did they turn the faith into? They turn the grace of our God, he says, into lewdness. So we not only have to defend the church against the atheists, we have to defend the faith against those within the church who want to turn the grace of God basically into a license to do whatever you want, a license to sin.

Defending the Faith Everywhere

Before we get into that, though, there's many areas that we need to defend the faith. You need to defend the faith everywhere you go, in every situation. We not only need to defend the faith in the church house, which is the primary context.

These days, we need to defend the faith in the schoolhouse. If your child is being taught evolution, you need to combat that because really it is a type of false teaching. So I would say to the parents, if you can, if you can homeschool your children, then do it.

I realize not everybody is able to do that, but if you can, do it. But we need to defend the faith in the church house and in the schoolhouse. Joshua 25, verse 15. And you also need to defend the faith in your house.

Joshua 25, 15, he says, as for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord. So why do I need to defend the faith in my own home? Because members of your family, people under your own roof, may not hold to the truth.

So they may believe what they believe, but as for you, what do you need to do? You need to serve the Lord. And if your children or people, if it's your house, it's your house, but it's God's rules. You need to make sure that Christ is upheld in your home.

It's your house, you get to decide. So we need to defend the faith in the schoolhouse, the church house, in your house. We also need to defend the faith in the state house. I didn't preach about this last week before the election.

I figure at this point, what's the point? That's sort of my attitude at this time. But let me say this. If you're a Christian and you vote, you need to vote based on which candidate best represents, who's closest to what the Bible teaches.

So we need to defend the faith in the state house, in the town hall, in the public square. People today say, well, you shouldn't talk about your faith in the public arena.

Hogwash.

You need to talk about your faith no matter where you are. Again, anytime, everywhere. So when we defend the faith, how should we be? What's our demeanor? You know, we shouldn't be rude. We don't want to be rude.

We don't want to be cantankerous. There's people out there, they're speaking their truth. They're speaking their mind. We should be able to speak the truth.

Amen?

Did you agree with this? Okay, I hope so. But the main context here, Jude, we need to defend the faith in the church house. This is where it's the most critical because you're not really going to expect the faith to be upheld all these other places.

We kind of know how that goes. Judgment starts in the house of God. So if the church isn't preaching and teaching the truth, then where are we at? What does Jude say in verse three? The letter that he wanted to write was about our common salvation.

In other words, Jude wanted to write a letter that, hey, you're saved. I'm saved. We have this common faith. We all believe in Jesus. Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it great for us? Well, that's what he wanted to write, but he recognized the moment he was living it.

I really, I'm telling you the truth. I really want to preach positive sermons. You know, there's the preachers that are positive only, and it's all positivity and flowers and rainbows and unicorns. I want to preach positive messages, but I believe or I understand that the times we're living in and what is required.

So Jude says, I wanted to write to you concerning our common salvation, but these men have crept in to the churches. So he writes this letter that's very different. So Jude is writing to Christians, instructing them, instructing us to what?

Contend earnestly for the faith. When you hear the word contend, what comes to mind? Fighting, right?

Yep.

So we need to fight for the faith. That's where this idea comes from. Contend earnestly. In other words, we need to fight for the faith because people have crept in and they're turning the grace of God into lewdness.

So that's what contend means. It means we need to fight. You need to be willing to take things on. You need to be willing to go to battle over certain things. Jude isn't saying that we should have a contentious spirit.

I'm sure you've known people throughout the years that they're just contentious people. Any little thing, they cop an attitude over nothing. They're just unhappy. If you cross their path, they're going to give you grief just because.

Obviously, as believers, we shouldn't be like that. I think we should be joyful fighters. We should fight joyfully. Is that a new idea? Have you ever heard that? We should. We should fight joyfully. Fighting sounds bad.

It has a negative connotation to it. But fighting is not bad. It depends what you're fighting for or what you're fighting against. It's sort of like love. Love is not necessarily good. It's not necessarily bad.

It depends on the object of your love. If you love God, that's good. If you love your neighbor as yourself, that's good. If you love evil, that's bad. If you love Satan, that's bad. So love isn't good or bad.

Fighting isn't good or bad. It depends on what you're fighting for. In this life, you're going to fight for something. Some people are off fighting political battles. People are fighting with their neighbors.

They're fighting their spouse. They're fighting. Hey, take that time and energy and fight for the faith.

Amen?

Fighting for the Cause of Christ

So let's look at a couple things. We'll look at how we should fight. I would say, again, be a joyful fighter. We should look at how we are to fight. We'll look at when we should fight. But first, I want to reinforce this idea, the necessity of fighting.

Fighting for the faith. Because a lot of people are going to try to convince you that Christians shouldn't fight at all. The scam is to try to get you to be loving and accepting of everything and everybody.

That's what a Christian should be. You should just accept everything and everybody. And yet, the people that talk about tolerance and acceptance the most, they're the first people to not tolerate certain things.

Now, it's true. As followers of Jesus, we should be patient. We should be kind. But nobody is accepting of everything. This is the devil's trick, though, to try to get you to roll over and play dead and accept everything.

But the people who lecture us about acceptance, they're off fighting for their causes. Are they not?

Oh, yeah.

They're fighting every day for their causes. We have a cause, too. And that is the cause of Christ. Preach the gospel to every creature. Baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Teach them all things that Christ commanded.

Support missions to bring this message all over the world. Promote godly worship. And defend the faith. Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message, or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, MorrisCornickChurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.