A Defense of the Faith — E.A. Johnston

Spiritual Decline and the Warning of Jude

When I read my Bible, it amazes me that I can see what I'm reading being played out in society all around me. A good example of this, friends, is the Epistle of Jude, which reads like a billboard of the times in which we live.

Moral Corruption, Apostasy, and Coming Persecution

We live in a day, friends, of false teachers in the church and corrupt leaders in the land. We live in a time of great immorality in society, great bloodshed in our cities, and great apostasy in our churches.

Our nation has lined herself up against the God of the Bible and shakes her defiant fists in his face and dares him to do anything about it. A God is mocked today. A good is called evil, an evil good.

It's a day when perversion runs rampant throughout all sectors of society and a time when violence fills our streets with blood. It's as if all the fabric of society is spinning out of control and no one can stop it.

It's also a time when a God-hate society will begin to hate Christians with a fierceness not seen in this country before. Persecution is coming to the church in America, friends, and soon all believers will be seen as enemies of the state and pariahs of society.

Jude's Call to Contend for the Faith

The coming days will be a time for all true Christians to make a defense of the faith. And that is the title of my message this evening, friends, a defense of the faith. My text can be found in the book of Jude.

You may turn in your Bibles there now, friends. Let me read you this brief epistle at this time, and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His Holy Word. 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 ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

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 ye 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, 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, and despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.

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

Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gangsan of Korah. They are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear, clouds they are without water, carried about of wind, trees whose fruit withereth, 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 thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to confess all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against them.

These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts, and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage. But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.

These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. But you, 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.

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 forever.

Amen. I will stop there. Can't you see this epistle of Jude being played out in our day, friends? Are not the signs all around us? I want to take this time now to read you a story about a Christian man, a simple Christian man, who publicly took a stand against an intellectual atheist, and turned his entire community around for God.

The Atheist Lecturer and the Christian Miner

It's a true story, and it took place in a rural mining town. You see, there was this atheist lecturer going from town to town disclaiming the Bible, and denouncing the God of the Bible as a myth. Well, here now is that story.

Everyone admitted that this atheist lecturer was a smart man. In debate, he could generally make his opponent, however clever, trip himself and look utterly ridiculous. As a lecturer, his arguments were convincing, and his ability to mislead his hearers were attested by the spread of the infidelity wherever he presented his infamous addresses.

But God is not mocked, and he was holding in reserve one of his own to confound this emissarious Satan. One night, during one of his lectures in a rich mining town, he observed the presence of a most intent listener.

The man was still wearing his rough, grimy miner's garments, and his massive frame, and scarcely concealed muscles, spoke of a man of unusual physical strength. When the speaker concluded all his arguments against the Bible as the inspired Word of God, Jesus Christ as God's Holy Son, and Christianity as the logical consequence of belief in them, he exultantly felt that he had successfully demolished in his hearers, any faith that they had held in such theories as he labelled them.

He ended his address by saying, ìNow Iím sure that I have succeeded in accounting to you for the myth that is called the religion of Jesus Christ .î Why, he had hardly finished when the miner whom he had previously noted arose slowly to his feet.

Though clothed in grimy garments, he towered majestically over his neighbors. His voice boomed through the hall as he addressed his words to the infidel speaker. ÌSir ,î he said, ìI am only a working man, and I donít know your fancy word myth.

But these people know me. They know that until three years ago, I was the toughest man in town. They know that up till that time, I had a miserable home. I neglected my wife and children. I cursed, I swore, I drank all my wages, and whoever withstood me soon felt the force of my fist.

Then someone came along and told me of the love of God to poor sinners. He gave me a glimpse of Christ Jesus dying on Calvaryís cross for lost wretches like me. And he lifted me up with hope and faith in the very things that you now call a myth.

I believe those things that you now deny through my newfound trust in the cleansing power of the Saviorís blood, and my life was changed. My home is different, and these folks can tell you all is now different in my life.

We have a happy home. I love my wife and children. I feel better in every way, and God has taken me the desire from me for liquor. A new power has taken possession of me since Christ came into my life, sir.

And his face was all aglow as he said the following, ìIf what you say is true, then how do you account for me ?î Well, the lecturer had no explanation to offer, and that working man sent the people home feeling that the Bible is still the word of the living God, that Jesus Christ is anything but a myth, and that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.

The Gospel's Power to Transform Lives

Oh, listen, friends. Iím not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Itís the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. I am thrilled with that story, and I hope it stirred your heart as it has stirred my own.

Standing Firm Under Persecution

Itís the time, friends, for us to stand for defense of the faith in our land as the land turns its ugly head against the God of the Bible and as society grows more evil and more evil men come up to denounce the God of the Bible.

Itís time for Christians to stand and make a defense for the faith. Let us line up one by one, and if necessary, it may be a time weíll have to go to prison, weíll have to give our lives as a martyr for our faith in this country.

Whoever would have thought it when I grew up as a boy in the 1950s that America would become a God-hating country? But itís time for the people of the Lord to stand firm in a defense of the faith.