It's good to know that the Lord,
even though we might not always sing beautifully in the world
standards, the Lord is blessed in the hearing of our songs to
Him. I love a line out of that last hymn. Sorrow forgot, love's
purest joys restored. Be still, my soul, when change
and tears are past. All safe and blessed we shall
meet at last. This is good stuff. And there
are more. There are more verses to this song written in antiquity,
but it's a good reality. It's what we're doing every time
we gather together is that our soul could be at rest, that we
should be still. Because, beloved, I'm going to
tell you right now, I witness unstillness constantly. I see
it in your lives, I see it in your social media profiles, I
see it in your face. I see it when you get off work,
I see it in your text messages, in your conversations. You, likewise,
probably see it in mine. And so the very fact that some
of us may sit here some mornings and are troubled and stirred
and irritated, it is because of the sin nature of our being.
It is because of a lack of humility and the lack of the ability without
the Spirit of God working and intervening through the teaching
of His Word, we will always be caught up in the non-stillness,
the restlessness of life. And that's what we always want.
Even the cults know that. They knock on your door and this
is their stick. They say, I'd like to talk to you about peace.
And you think, who's that? Do they live down the street?
Is that your dog? You know, there is no peace. I'd like to talk to you about
peace, but beloved, when we talk about Christ, we're talking about
peace. He is our Passover. He is our propitiation. He is
our peace. And that's why the apostles,
specifically Paul, is so quick to always impose grace, mercy,
peace, love, hope. as he addresses the church. So
today, we're going to be in the letter of Jude. I was going to
say Jude chapter one, but we're going to be in Jude as a way
of reminder. This little post-it note. And we're going to deal with
the church continually as the buttress. Remember, we're going
to talk about faith and what saving faith is according to the context
of the writing of the apostles, not historical record of the
Reformed tradition or anything like that. If we can't defend
it with the verses torn out of the Bible, we don't know what
we're talking about, okay? Let me just say that again. It
doesn't matter what we've remembered that we've heard. Ditto heads
are not wise. Okay? And I have found that just even
in some conversations this week, just reminded the fact that people that know it all don't
want to talk to people who are wise. they want to be heard. 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. For certain people
have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were designated for
this condemnation. Ungodly people who pervert the
grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only master, Lord
Jesus Christ. Now I want to remind you, although
you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved the people out
of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who were not
believing. And the angels, who did not stay within their own
position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, He has
kept in eternal chains in the gloomy darkness until the judgment
of the great day. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding
cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued
unnatural desires, serve as an example by undergoing the punishment
of eternal fire. Yet in like manner, these people
also rely on their dreams, they defile the flesh, they reject
authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. But when the archangel
Michael, contended with the devil, was disputing about the body
of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment,
but he said, the Lord rebuke you. But these people blaspheme
all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all
that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. Woe
to them. where they walked in the way
of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's
error and perished in Korah's rebellion. These are hidden reefs
that your love feasts as they feast with you without fear,
shepherds feeding themselves, waterless clouds swept along
by winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted,
wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame,
wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been
reserved forever. It was about these that Enoch,
the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord comes
with ten thousand of his holy ones to execute judgment on all,
to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness
that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the
harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These
are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires. They
are loud-mouthed braggers showing favoritism to gain advantage.
But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And they said to you, in the
last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions. It is these who cause divisions,
worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building
yourselves up in the most holy faith and praying in the Holy
Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the
mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And
have mercy on those who doubt, save others by snatching them
out of the fire. To others show mercy with fear, hating even
the garment stained by the flesh. Now to him who is able to keep
you from stumbling and present you blameless before the presence
of his glory with great joy. To the only God, our Savior,
through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory and majesty, dominion
and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. This is the word of the Lord.
Let us hear it. It's interesting because in my
preparation to talk about contending for the faith, which is what
our topic is this morning. About how the church, as the
buttress of the truth, also must stand for the truth. Contend
or defend or stand up for the faith. But in our world today,
we don't do it according to the scripture. I'm going to talk
about that a little bit that we may be instructed in the ways
of Christ, not in the ways of culture. But I find it interesting
that last week when Brother Armando read, he read this entire letter
and he also read Philemon. And I'm thinking, wow, that's
just, yeah, because I was only going to just deal with the first
part of the text. And after hearing it in my ears last week, I'm
going, nah, I just got to deal with the whole thing. And I remember
preaching through Jude. And then also one night in a
midweek some years ago, I preached the entire letter of Jude again.
It's a recurring theme. Pastor Jesse and I were talking
this past week. We feel like, and this may be some arrogance
or just negligence on our part as pastors, we feel like, you
know what, we've addressed that, we've touched over that, we've
taught this, moving right along, we're all on the same page. But
there's something innately frustrating in our minds as people that,
for me as a pastor, I'm constantly reading Jude, I'm constantly
reading John, I'm constantly reading Romans. I would say that
at the end of the year, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
times a year, I've read the entire New Testament in my study, in
my personal faith, listened to it on the road, and then to think
that every Christian in the seat does the same is ridiculously
naive of me. So even with my exposure to scripture,
which is completely lacking, I still find myself remembering
that which I already know and have taught, not only from the
pulpit, but from the classroom, have written in essays and theses
and everything else from the context of analyses and higher
criticism. We need reminders. We need reminders. But we're
annoyed by reminders, aren't we? We're annoyed when we're
49 years old and our mother says, you drive careful, don't speed. I'm not 20. Or when we tell our children,
buckle your seatbelt, don't forget to brush your teeth, don't forget
to hang up your towel. I know, I know, I know. We hate
reminder, but yet when it comes to the faith, it should be like
a refreshing aroma to our ears and soul. But therein we come
back to the issue of who is wise and who is just knowledgeable.
Knowledgeable people love to tell what they know. Wise people
love to listen to the nonsense and then, if the opportunity
awaits, steer and guide. Beloved, if a man doesn't handle
the Word of God in wisdom for the sake of the joy of the sheep,
he cannot speak it rightly. And even saying the right thing
to the wrong people at the wrong time in the wrong way is sinful. So there's two things that I
want to talk about today. One, is I want to talk about what
it means to contend for the faith. How we do it. But I want to remind
us what the faith is. Because we use that word as if
it's just a thing in and of itself. We use the word faith as if it's
some substance. We use the word gospel as if
it just is the thing that we've created and took hold of. The
gospel, this is the gospel. Well, beloved, there's only one
way to define the gospel. And any additions or subtractions
to these things create a false gospel. There's only one way
to define Jesus, and that is through the revelation of the
word of God in its fullness. Not in its pretext, not in its
verses. I strongly encourage you who
don't have a Bible without the verses and numbers and everything
in it to get a reader's Bible and read it. And by all means, put your study
Bibles up. Because we're too ADD as a culture
and a community to have all those nice little maps and swirly gigs
and everything else going on. And just, you know, when we have
the Bible on our tablets and phones, we ought to have a feature
in those apps where it locks everything out and we have to
put a 45 thing passcode and hold our fingers down for like five
seconds to get in it. Because we're just so attention
deficit to the Word of God. And there's a supernatural component
to that. that the enemy doesn't want us to focus on the Word
of God. But beloved, if you just get a cheap $4 reader's Bible
and just read it, God will transform your brain, your attitude, your
heart, your marriage, your relationship at work, your thoughts about
the future, and your butts will be in the seats here if you're
in the Word of God. Your hearts would be tuned to
one another if you're in the Word of God. because God has
promised to teach us and to guide us and to equip us through the
hearing of the word. And that doesn't mean we're going
to take all of our week and study a word and then do proof texts
and then do commentaries and act like God's going to teach
us something. We'll learn some things, but we're not going to
learn from God that way. So what is the gospel? First,
God's gospel is not a real word. It is now, but in Jesus' day
it didn't exist. Old English had not been invented.
The word gospel is a transliterated contraction of an old English
variant of the word Godspell. G-O-D-S-P-L-L, which means God
story or good story. Oh, that's God. You know, sort
of like an Irish tint. It all works together. So the
word gospel is a new creation that means the good story. That's all it means. And there
is no other meaning whatsoever found in the entirety of the
Word of God. So the question then, what story, what story,
what historical record is gospel? Good news. And that is found
very succinctly in Paul's writing to the Church of Corinth in his
first letter. Chapter 15, which Brother Trey
has dealt with in the last few months several times. Referred
to about what the gospel is. It's not new for us. We've talked
about it. We've read it. We've talked through
it as a church. But why is it always necessary
to be reminded? Because the culture says other
things. History says other things. Some people have come into our
fellowship and said, well, the gospel is perfect knowledge. Some people
have come in and said, well, the gospel is, you know, your
response, not as a thing to do with it. Some people would say,
well, the gospel this and the gospel that. What Paul says in
1 Corinthians 15, by way of reminder, isn't that funny? I want to remind you, brothers,
of the gospel that I taught you and preached to you. See, the
word preaching and teaching are synonymous. There's not two distinct
acts. If I'm preaching, I'm teaching. If I'm teaching, I'm preaching.
And the grammar of the New Testament uses those words interchangeably,
sometimes in the same paragraph. Now, we may get technical. Well,
preaching is a public proclamation. Okay. Preaching is also exhortation,
admonishment, encouragement, and that also includes teaching
because every time there's preaching, teaching must take place. Preaching
is not pounding the principles and pounding the pulpit to pound
the pews into submission. It's not dogma for the sake of
behavior modification or brainwashing. Anybody to believe this is an
idiot. That's one of the most favorite things for me to say
Because it gets people upset and then unbeknownst to me. That's
really what I want. Sometimes you ever done that
It's called called nonsense knuckleheadedness foolishness. It's definitely
not wise it's sinful The Gospel. I preach to you.
I talk to you. Thessalonica. You receive the
Gospel, the good story of Jesus Christ that we brought to you
in power. Not just in your brains. The
Word of God came to you in power. The Spirit of God came to you
in power. And we not only see it through the belief that God
has gifted you. You have not mustered faith out
of a new mind. The reason you have a new mind
and faith is because God has given it to you. you receive, in which you stand,
and by which you are being saved. I don't want to get into the
nuts and bolts of the butchery of the use of the idea of saved,
being saved, and all of that. But to give the condition there,
if you hold fast to the Word, I preach to you, unless you believed
in vain. The gospel is the proclamation. Is the narration. Of the promise
of God to send the seed of the woman to save his people. Messiah,
Christ, Christos, whatever language you want to put it in. The anointed. One set apart from God sent. And Paul never mixes and mingles
the fruits of gospel truth and the necessary conditions of gospel
salvation with the gospel message. He never does that. None of the
apostles do. Jesus surely didn't. But yet
it is a habit that we have. You know, I said, where in the
world do we just think about it? Think about it, the very idea
of asking someone if they're saved brings about an untold number
of responses. And most of them in our culture
are so sideways and so unbiblical, are you saved? And rarely do
we find somebody saved from what? I mean, they usually know we
have some Bible-ish mindset in this conversation. But Paul says
in verse 3 of 1 Corinthians 15, I delivered to you as of first
importance what I also received. So he's not changing anything,
he's not adding to it. Paul's philosophy has never invaded
the gospel. Paul's practical wisdom has never
invaded the gospel. That's why it's so easy for a
culture to believe a big fat preaching head that gets popular
through radio or television, or now internet, and can change
the very foundation of the gospel message to mean that if you are
living a life in obedience, you're saved. And that's a lie. Or I'm better than I was. I'm
not as sinful as I was. What if you grew up in a religious
home and you were never really that sinful? It's easy for the
crackhead, drug dealing mobster to go, man, I'm a changed guy.
It's hard for the Bible studying, pretty straight A student to
go, well, now I know Jesus. The true Jesus. But I'm really
still a sinner, but not in His eyes. Because He put the justice
and wrath on the Son, and the Son's righteousness is credited
to me. So in the court of heaven, I'm free, I'm innocent, having
never sinned. That's what's crazy about justification.
It's not, you clean up now, I'm going to clean you up. A changed life, evidenced by
faith alone, is established by the promise of God and His power. And what is this gospel-only
message that I received, Paul says, that I'm now delivering
to you and reminding you of? That Christ died for our sins,
not the world, not every particular person in the world ever, without
exception. That's not true. People who believe
that have never read the New Testament. And it's difficult, because the
culture, 99.9999% of the culture in Christian circles don't know
that. And I can, it's anecdotal, it's
only my experience, but I can tell you this, is that most of
the preacher associates that I have, most of the people that
I've known through the quarter century that I've been doing
ministry, who are also pastors in other denominations and other
cultures and other places. Few of them have ever even read
the New Testament. You ask the average pastor what
the letter of Jude is about. Heaven help if you talk to them
about 1 John or 3 John. And here it is, that Christ died
for our sins according to the prophets and the promises of
God, according to the scriptures, the Old Testament, according
to the promise that Jesus Christ would come into the world through
a virgin and save his people from their sins. That he was buried, what does
that impose? Common sense. He was buried alive,
oh no! I mean, it's not that big a deal
to be buried alive in a cave, just move the, you know. Hello? Can you shut the door
on me? That's not what happened. He died! Okay? He died. He died badly. Terribly. Painfully. And when they shoved
the spear, about that big, up into his chest cavity, Affixiation
was proven by the fact that water and blood poured out onto the
ground. He was buried. That means he
died. That means the gospel message.
He died for our sins in accordance with the scripture that he was
buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance
with the scripture. And then he appeared to Kepha,
or Cephas as we say in English, which is Peter, then to the twelve. So not only did he reign, he
didn't just vanish. He walked around, talked, ate,
used the bathroom, all that good stuff. Yes, Jesus was a human
as well as being God. So now we have this gospel message. It's a simple gospel message.
It's a very simple thing. Simple grace, simple truth, simple
hope. And there is no way and nowhere in Scripture that entangles
anything else in the Gospel message. There's no responses in the Gospel
message. It's not a good message to be
told that you must turn or burn. The Gospel message is not an
offer of salvation to all people, even though we are to proclaim
it to the nations. Only the elect of God will hear
it by the power of God. If you come, you will live. That's
a true statement of condition that we see, especially the Jews
being told. You don't see Gentiles hearing
that in the context, and we don't see the church being instructed
that very much in the letters. But we do see that in the very
first weeks of Christ's ascension. after the upper room experience
when they go out and they're teaching and preaching the gospel
in power and people are hearing their languages and the undoing
of the picture of Babel and God separating the ability and the
power and the ability of man to ever unify as a picture of
His sovereignty and salvation. That's what Babel's all about,
beloved. So then God undoes it by the
Spirit. God Himself is the only one who can unconfuse man, who
can unify man. Only Christ brings the bride
together as one body. Not theologians, not pastors,
not culture, not history, not affinity. Christ. And so we see all of this taking
place and then we know that the gospel message then doesn't include
something that the scripture teaches that man cannot do. We
see that in John chapter 3 and 4, don't we? And I submit to
you this, that by the power of God and the authority of God
and His Word, that the Scripture is very clear to say that I could
take and read John's Gospel, chapter 1, and in the hearing
of a thousand people, if God so chooses to bring faith in
Christ through the hearing of that Word alone through a megaphone, He can do it. And I've been told as of yesterday
that that's nonsense. You've got to explain more things
in order for it to be the full gospel. Nonsense. Nonsense. That's why we have
the narrative of the gospels. And we see people hearing the
proclamation. I mean, at the hill of Ares,
the Areopagus served. We call it Mars because Mars
is the other name of Ares, right? The Hill of Ares, Mars Hill,
Areopagus. Paul is teaching, Jews are in
Earshot, the Greeks are there, the ruling Areopagus, they're
there. And Paul, what is this, is this
Acts 17? Paul just basically reiterates
with expansion and a little bit of rhetoric what he tells the
Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15. There's this God who came
to the earth and he lived a life and he died for the sins of his
people and he was buried and he rose from the dead and that
was it. That was it. And he lost half
his audience. The same reason Jesus lost all
of his audience when he said, you got to eat my flesh and drink
my blood. That my death, the crushing of my body and the shedding
of my blood is your salvation. Not what are you going to do
with it? That's a false gospel. If I say right now, oh, my phone,
my watch beeped, the Sheriff's Department just told us that
there is someone shooting across the street. We need to go out
this back door and around the back of this building for safety.
And I leave, and y'all sit here. Well, James, you didn't tell
us to come. It implies it. Hello, welcome
to whatever restaurant. How can I help you today? There's an implication of context. It's like I told this person yesterday,
you know, if I come up to you in the shopping mall, or the
shopping mall, if I come up to you in the grocery store and
your shopping cart has a gallon of milk in it, I say, hey, you
know what? I know about some milk that never spoils. And I
do. Never spoils. Shelf stable. Keep
it forever. And you say, where did I get
this milk? I think you're full of it. You're
tricking me. How much is this milk? Where
might I purchase it? Is that not John 4? What has happened when I said,
I got some milk over here that never spoils? Okay, just walk
away. No, it's going to cause dissonance
in your thoughts. Because the way we think about
certain things lays completely in the context of our lives and
our thought processes. So we are always thinking about
the things that we think about the way we think about them.
The word repentance literally means a transformation of disposition
in thought. That means if I say to you, you
could have milk that never spoils, because you told me yesterday,
man, I just waste so much money on milk, it just goes bad before
I can use it. And I say to you, I know where
some milk is that never spoils. I don't have to force you to
ask the question, where is it? It's called cognitive function. It's a brain work. But more importantly,
when it comes to the gospel, what is it? It's divine work. It's divine work. And beloved,
this is where we can have peace that surpasses understanding.
Dale Carnegie would tell us about closing the sale. We don't close
gospel. We don't close it. I've been
brought under correction, not church discipline, but employee
discipline, because I did not close services before with a
call to faith. And the next week I called it
witchcraft. It was foolish, but productive. I think the first Harry Potter
movie had just come out. It's called Pelagianism if you
want to know the historical points. The scripture teaches us what
the gospel is. I mean, Paul in Romans 1, listen
to the first six verses of Romans 1. Paul, an apostle, a slave
of Jesus Christ, what does he say? Called to be an apostle,
why? Set apart for the good story
of God. which He promised beforehand
through His prophets, what we just learned in 1 Corinthians
1.15. In the Holy Scriptures, according to Scriptures. Concerning
what? His Son, who was descended from
David. There's a historical connection
to the prophecies. according to the flesh and was declared
to be the Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness
by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ, our Lord,
through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring
about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name among
all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus
Christ. And that is a divine work. It
is not an outward expression. And I won't take time to read
all 18 verses of John chapter 1, but if I did and I shut my
Bible, anyone that God so seems, deems ready for salvation and
regeneration, He will cause you to believe that Jesus Christ
came in the flesh. He was in the world and the world
was made through him, yet the world did not know him, that he came
to his own and his own people did not accept him to receive
him and acknowledge him. But to all who did receive him,
he gave the right to become the children of God who were born,
not what born, not of blood, nor the will of the mind, nor
the will of the flesh. But the but the will of God.
And we know that the scripture says We've all received grace
upon grace, the law given through Moses, but grace and truth came
through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but
he who is at his side, the only God has made him known. In John 4, Jesus says, if you
knew the gift of God, if you knew the gift of God and who
it is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked
him and he would have given you living water. And the woman said,
Oh, how are you going to give me living water? How are you
going to give me unspillable milk? You got no money. You got no shopping cart. You
got no bucket. And the well is really, really deep. You can't
give it to me. And where are you going to get that anyway?
You know Jacob, our father, he built this well for all his livestock
and his families. Are you greater than him? Are
you thinking you can give me better water than Jacob gave?
Get out of here. That's nonsense. What happened
in the woman of Sychar's mind? She was confronted with her belief
system without being confronted with her belief system because
she heard in her ear An alternate truth. A contrary idea. That's what the gospel of grace
alone does to the human mind. Especially the religious minds. And Jesus says, everyone who
drinks of this water will thirst. But anyone who drinks of the
living water will never thirst again, ever, because I will give it
to them. The water that I will give him will become in him a
stream of water that wells up, overflows. And it's killer what
he says here, to eternal life. So it's not just water that never
goes dry, it's water that makes you live forever. What? I'll outlive all these knuckleheads
that hate my guts down in Sychar. Give me the water. I'll take
it. I'll never have to come back
here again and publicly be looked down upon. That's the gospel. And how do we know that? Because
then she argues that he's a prophet. Jesus tells her something she
already knows about herself. Go get your husband. I don't
have a husband. You have told the truth when you say I have
no husband. As a matter of fact, you've had five and you're shacking
up with a dude now. I mean can you imagine meeting a total stranger
in like Arizona on your way across country and they say that to
you and you're like getting in your car and you didn't even
get gas, you're just going to keep going and that's not a place
not to get gas. 285 miles to the next rest stop. I perceive you're a prophet.
I'm not a prophet. Father that you so claim to know, woman.
The true Father is looking for worshippers who worship in spirit
and truth, and all of a sudden, out of the blue, nowhere, out
of nowhere, she remarks these words. Out of all that theological
debate with God. Imagine that. Should have named
her Israel. Argues with God. Wrestles with
God. That's what it means. She says, I guess, I guess only
Messiah Only Messiah is the answer to
these things. Only Messiah will show me this truth. And she runs to the very place
she doesn't want to be, to the public that despise her. And she says, behold, look, I've
met a man that's told me everything I've ever done. He never said
that. Because the Spirit of God imposes upon the will of the
lost, elect person at regeneration, the knowledge of grace. And the
idea of grace, if it's grace, I know I don't
deserve it. If it's mercy, I know that I'm
guilty. You see what I'm saying? So all
this fodder and foolishness of Phineas and stuff like that,
for those of you who know the history, of evangelical false
gospels has just invaded the very simplicity of grace. So
if we're going to contend for the faith, we've got to contend
for the right faith. Quit adding to all these things, because
if we add to, then somebody else adds to, then who's right? Paul
is right. Jesus is right. Paul, I've already used Act 17,
I won't use it again, but he basically said this God that
I'm talking about doesn't need human hands to dust his face
off and put him back on the shelf. And you're wise enough to know
that you don't have all the answers because you've got a God over
here that says to the unknown God, let me tell you who this
God is. And here Paul proclaims the gospel.
What you say is unknown, I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna preach
to you, I'm gonna teach you right now. And he says, the God who made
the world and everything in it. Being the Lord of heaven and
the Lord of earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is
he served by human hands as if he needed us or needed anything,
since he himself gives all mankind life and breath and everything,
and he made from one man every nation of humanity to live on
the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and
the boundaries of their dwelling place that they should seek God.
and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually
not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and
have our heart. Even some of your own poets have
said, for we are indeed His offspring. And Paul says, being then God's
offspring. Get that. Even though you, you
Greeks, in your own poems have said, we are the offspring of
God's. So as God's offspring, it's not theological instruction
there, it's rhetorical proclamation. We ought not to think the divine
being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by
the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God has
overlooked, but now, what does he say? He commands all people
to think differently. It's exactly what that word means. You better change how you're
thinking concerning God. Because He has fixed a day on
which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man, here's
the gospel, that He has appointed and He has given assurance by
all, by raising Him from the dead. And then it went sideways.
Nope. Nope. Oh, we were with you, Paul. We're like, oh yeah, I'm gonna
write a couple of scrolls on this TED Talk. And he is an idiot. Come on, John, let's leave. Dummy. Raising from the dead garbage.
But they believe some God went down in the grave and, like,
stole a box and put his daughter in prison. I mean, you know,
it's funny, isn't it? But not coming back from the
dead. It's a man. That was Heraclius Hill. But some men joined him and believed,
among whom were Dionysus, Dionysius, the Areopagite and the woman
named Damaris and others with them. See, God regenerated them. They did nothing. They didn't
come back and chitter chatter with Paul and lead them through
anything. God just saved them. How do we know? Because their
mind was changed. They didn't walk away like everybody else
thinking that was a ridiculous assertion that this man was raised
from the dead. All of a sudden, they had the
divine gift of faith, which is repentance. If you have faith,
that is repentance. So now that we understand the
gospel and simplicity is all about the person of Jesus Christ,
let us go back to the reality of where we started, to the context
of where we started, rather, and deal with the reality of
what it means to contend for the faith, because this very
conversation that we're having this morning, it's a conversation
I'm not up here lecturing. I'm imposing on your thoughts,
and you're going, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm. You know,
your thumb up, thumb down, smiley face, sad face, angry face. You're
doing all that in your head. That stuff wasn't created, it's
just extrapolated from the human conscience. That's what we do. I mean, that's why they were
called emoticons when we were coming up. Now they're emojis,
which I have no idea what that means. Continue for the faith. Defend
the faith. Stand firm in the faith. I mean,
everybody I know in the world, cults alike, they all want to
stand firm in the faith. I'm going to be an apologist.
I'm going to defend the faith. So this is what I'm going to do.
I'm going to get my sword and get my this and get my that. I'm going
to go after folks. I'm going to do it. Let me give you 12 quick
things. I had a bunch, but I thought
I've got to stop because this isn't the point of the message.
I'm going to give you 12 things that are not contending for the faith.
Very quick, rapid succession. Contending for the faith is not
arguing and debating. Contending for the faith is not fighting
against error through polemics and character assassination.
Contending for the faith is not isolating ourselves from others
who are in unbelief. Matter of fact, that's wicked. It's wicked. Contending for the
faith is not ignoring error, but acting according to the gospel
against it. Contending for the faith is not just for elders
and theologians, it's for every believer. Contending for the
faith is not fighting to keep the truth the truth. It doesn't
need our help. Contending for the faith is not seeking out
error under every rock and crack. Contending for the faith is not
accepting false teachers, but somewhat gently, sometimes rebuking
them. Continuing for the faith is not
damaging a wayward sibling, but being patient. Continuing for
the faith requires first things first, according to the scripture,
among the local church. Continuing for the faith is not
going to a church or finding a ministry that we can out and
root out the error and fix it. Well, that's a God complex if
I ever heard one. That's like your neighbor knocking on your
door telling you how to mix your potatoes. I'll tell you what
you can do, Mr. Neighbor. Go back over there
with your tater flakes and leave me to the grinding. Contending
for the faith is not going to stop. It is not going to stop. There
will always be an occasion every single day of our lives, especially
inside the church that the local assemblies of believers are responsible
for contending for the faith themselves. So let's look at
Jude. We see three specific things
very quickly. Well, four things. A servant
of Jesus Christ to those who are called, those who are beloved
in God, and kept for Jesus Christ. And then we see mercy, peace,
and love multiplied to you. So, Jude is writing to believers
who are called. Called to what? Called by the
Spirit. How do we know someone's been
called by the Spirit? They believe. Beloved, if someone doesn't believe
the gospel, they haven't been born again. But it doesn't mean
they're not elect. You see, that's another problem
with this little conversation. There are some people who believe
that they've been given the divine eye of knowing who are the elect
and who are the reprobate. That's nonsense. That's not our
business. Only church discipline settles
the issue of intimacy, but it never allows us to make judgment
on that issue. ever. We are to treat our brother
or sister as if they're an unbeliever. We withhold benefit, we withhold
intimacy, we withhold the means of grace, but they are in our
minds a believer who has fallen away. You see, we cannot say
someone is unconverted unless they deny the gospel and then
stomp their feet and leave. But even then, we do well to
just be patient, as we'll see in just a second. We're called, we are so beloved
in the Father. God doesn't love every Tom, Dick,
and Harry in town, just like I don't love every woman in Claxton.
I'd be in big trouble, wouldn't I? I may love them generally
in the sense of they're human beings, just like I love dogs,
because I don't want to see them suffer either. It's like I love
my neighbor who may hate my guts. We love them through service,
but it doesn't mean that every person that we love is our spouse
or every child that we love is our child. Because while if this
room was full of a thousand people and all everyone's children and
there was something that happened, surely all of us would help each
other get all the children to safety. But instinctively, we're
going to see our children first. God loves His people. How? It's not a feeling. It's not an emotion. God does
not feel an emote. He doesn't have a battery of
emoticons or emojis. That's not how He reveals Himself.
He reveals Himself through one act concerning His love, and
that is His grace toward His people in the death of His Son,
which is the good story of His promise. It's too simple, isn't
it? Therein lies the problem. The Beloved of God. Not just
Beloved of God and the death of Jesus, but we are kept for
Jesus. Look at that. Kept for Jesus. Like Peter's
first epistle, chapter 1. Like Ephesians, chapter 1. I
mean, look, this is not new. Paul's not, Jude isn't out of
his office rocker. He's just parroting the very
same thing that the Spirit of God taught him that taught the
other apostles. Well, how do they remember all that? Jesus
said that they would. He said, I'm going to send the paraclete.
I'm going to send the helper. I'm going to send my spirit. And he, that's a person, is going
to cause you to remember everything that I've ever taught you. You're
not gonna forget, because you're humans, and you can't do this
on your own. I must cause you to remember.
Beloved, I'm not an apostle, so I have to keep reading it
all the time. God help me keep the Word of
God in my head. I used to think about back when
I was doing a bunch of stuff, I'm like, I'm gonna get me some
tattoos. You know what, I'm gonna tattoo John's gospel on my body. The whole thing. Can you see
that? In the Greek! Without spaces! The higher critics would follow
me around. Oh, look at Dibbens. They'd find my body one day,
preserve my skin, put it in a frame. Man, this is like a minuscule We're kept for Christ. It's important,
because it's what Jude says, mercy, peace, and love be multiplied
to you. This is the essence of the Christian
experience, that we've received mercy, we've received love, we've
received peace through Jesus Christ, and we're being kept,
who by God's power are being kept, because God loves us. How do we know? Because Christ
died for us. How do we know? Because God's caused us to trust
in that truth. And in verses 3 and 4 he says,
man, beloved, I was eager to write to you about our common
salvation. I just wanted to opine in the gospel for a little bit,
but the problem is that there's some people among you that have
come in unnoticed who are doing two things. They are using the
grace of God, grace, grace, grace, carpe diem, sin like you want
to, like it's 1999, you know. How disappointing was 2000 for
Prince? I mean, I'm sorry. That was always a
joke growing up. What's it going to be like? Y2K? I think I burned those books
finally when I was cold one winter. Just party, party, party! And
Jews are like, these people can't use grace as a way of promoting
sensuality and sinfulness. And secondly, they've denied
the divinity of our Lord. So they've made Jesus just a
human being, which is somewhat quasi-gnostic, isn't it? But
it's anti-gnostic at the same time. In other words, it's new
knowledge that I've got, but it's sort of material. So let's
just enjoy this material world. Jesus, I guarantee you they had
something to say. Well, you know, Jesus was a man.
He enjoyed life. You can enjoy life, too, in the
sinful ways. Nonsense. Jude said this is ridiculous.
So the error was two-fold. This is the point I'm making.
It was theological error concerning Christ as person and it was behavioral
error concerning how we ought to live as Christians. Anytime
one of those is taught, it's a heresy. What does heresy mean? A divided opinion that causes
trouble and strife and discourse and arguments and separation.
So the church must contend for the faith first and foremost
in the truth of what the faith is, the gospel of Christ and
His work, and then the truth of God revealed in the teaching
of the scripture of how we ought to live according to the gospel.
We don't mix the two. They're completely two different
things, yet they're related in that God has called us to a different
life as believers. And so there's some phrases,
there's some things that we see in scripture that are always
at work. And I have to give these fast
because I don't want to make this a three-part sermon. We hear the idea of contend for
the faith, fighting the faith, running the race, keeping the
faith, keeping ourselves, as we'll see in just a minute, in
the love of God, striving, enduring, running the race. Put away sin. So let's look at
a way some of these things, and y'all know where we are. When
I said those phrases, you probably came in your mind. If you don't
know where it is in the scripture, you know that the scripture testifies
to those things. So let's look at a few ways that
this is viewed in scripture. First, with doctrinal error, we have
to talk with other believers in the church when they espouse
a false doctrine. I mean, we have that responsibility. I mean, we're glad to do it in
the context of politics, or economics, or social issues, or whatever,
or some of these things that I have just decided I'm never
going to spend my time on anymore. It destroys me, and then it's
bad for you. So we have to. We're told in
the Bible, you know, speak the truth in love, say these things,
or whatever. But we can never be judgmental. So sometimes when
it comes to doctrinal errors, we have to talk to one another.
And we have to insist that, you know what, what you're saying
right here is just, we need to get some help. But we gotta be
patient in it, as you'll see. We don't just sit around and
go, well, old Bob, there he is again. Remember him from last
week. Old Bob teaching some nonsense
he found on the internet or he thought of in his dreams or in
the shower. And he won't stop. He just keeps
on with it. Insisting on his point of view and his word usage
and everything else. And by golly, let's just let
him have it. No, you have to say something. But you don't tear down the walls
when you dust the house. Because when the walls come down,
it's a bigger mess. Peter was confronted. Then Peter confronted
his readers about They're not believing in the incarnation.
Did you realize that? Or the second coming? Paul, the
same thing in Thessalonica. People in Galatia thinking that
circumcision and following the law was beneficial. If you're
really a believer, well, you better get this just in case.
It's an insurance policy. What an insurance policy. James confronts those in his
oversight about favoritism, bragging, talking trash, lack of giving,
hatred, jealousy. And he says, you need to love
the Lord in word and deed. Well, I believe in the gospel
of grace. Well, you're not living it. That's James's letter. And if you're not living it,
you can't stay with us. You're living like a heathen. So we have to confront doctrine
and behavior. John teaches the churches to
avoid supporting false teachers. So sometimes subtly, we don't
say, look at this false teacher, he's bad. No, that's promoting
a false teacher. If you've got a friend, because
most people who do that have no friends, and their mom and spouse are
kind enough to like their posts, Most people have no friends and
they're telling everybody who's scared that they're going to
be next on the list. So everybody watches, but nobody's
honest. Don't look at that over there.
And what do we do? We look at that over there. So
the very nature of some of these knuckleheads is to promote false
teaching. John says not to do that. What's
the way to not promote false teaching? Close the window. Turn
down the radio. Stop sending chicks to these
parachurch ministries. Well, they've got a good orphanage.
But they're Satanists! I mean, you know, come on, let's
use some common sense. Well, his economic policies are good,
but he's a murderer. I've got to miss. And no matter what, It's like
John would say, don't give them food or shelter, send them on
their way to come to your town. There's another town up the road with
some pagans that'll help them. You don't stop and go, hey, this
guy right here, and put up a tent and try to show people as he's
walking through town he's a false teacher. How about bring no attention
to him? That's what we do. So Jude, he continues in 17,
he says, and I'm skipping a lot there because it's not the point,
but the point now we're getting to is this, is that Jude teaches us how to
contend for the faith. It's very simple, that's why
I put it last. You must remember, beloved, the
prediction of the apostles about our Lord Jesus. He said in the
last time there will be scoffers, there will be people following
their own ungodly passion. There will be people who will
not believe the truth and do what they want to do. It is these
who call, listen to this, divisions. They're worldly people devoid
of the Spirit. But you, but you, in contrast, I'm not talking
about you and the church members there. I'm not talking about
the saints who are caught up in this. I'm talking about these
people who started it. But you, building yourselves
up in the most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, here's
the command, verse 21, keep yourselves in the love of God. waiting for
the mercy, the grace of our Lord Jesus that leads to eternal life.
And instruction, have mercy on those who doubt, save others
by snatching them out of the fire, to others show mercy with
fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. And then
the doxology, verses 24 and 25. So what does that teach us? Verses 17, 18, and 19 is telling
us that error will always be here in the church, not in the
world. Who cares? It's not our business
God's sovereignty has put error in the world. God's sovereignty
has allowed error to creep into the church. God's sovereignty
has given us simple instruction on how to handle it peaceably,
without even any stress. Do you realize we can handle
divisions in the church without ever losing a wink of sleep?
Without our bodies being destroyed, bleeding internally and headaches
and migraines and eye problems and everything else because of
inflammation and anxiety? Believe that. Error will always be there. It
is foretold and guaranteed. It will never stop. So our contending
is not for the removal and the marking of all the error. Our
contending is to stand in confidence, joy, unity, and reconciliation
with God's people. That's what Jude says. So the two-fold way error is
invasive. It divides with bad behavior, handling things wrong,
living wrongly, sinfully, etc., and with teaching, heresies and
falsehoods. But Jude isn't talking about these people that he's
talking to. Verses 20-23, he says, Now it is not about the false
teachers and divisive antinomian legalists or whoever they might
want to be to make up their own laws and rules, but it's about
the saints. And now the instruction comes
of how we contend to the faith. We build ourselves up in the
most holy faith. What does that mean? We continue
to learn. We never become the guy or the
girl who says, yeah, I know that. Now there are some things we
know. I'm not putting that past us. There are some of the things
that you guys know that I have to go to you. What do you think
about this? Because I know you know it. But when it comes to the
knowledge of the truth, even if you might know it, there's
always a humility to know that you're not necessarily wise in
it. At least there is for me. I hope there is for you. So to
be reminded, to build myself up in the most holy faith, that
is to be reminded to stay in the Word of God and to stay around
God's people and to get ready for some things to happen where
we might not agree so that we can actually celebrate the doxology
to Him who is able when we reconcile. That's the picture of the gospel,
by the way. So we grow in the truth of Christ. We grow through reading the scripture.
We grow through sharing the gospel. We grow in the gathering and
learn together. Second, we keep ourselves in the love of God.
Now what in the name of all get out is that? And I preached this
before. I preached an entire sermon on
that text before somewhere in the last so many years. It's
funny, I go back to look for a sermon. I'm like, was that
last year? Seven years ago, 11 years ago. Time is so funny. So how are we to keep ourselves
in the love of God? Are we to walk lockstep in a certain way? Are
we to dress a certain way? Oh my God, my hair's out of whack! I'm out of the love of God! I
mean, and I know that's absurd, but that's how tenacious it becomes
when we are trying to earn God's love. It's not about earning
God's love. We love God because He first loved us, John says. But how is it that all of the
apostles teach us that we love God? What does it mean to keep
ourselves? It means to walk according to our love for God. How do we
do it? There's only one way. There's only one way. Serve other
saints. Not teach them, not rebuke them,
not all that kind of stuff. Serve them. Love them. The only
possible way to love Christ is to love His people. There is
no such thing as an emotional love for Jesus by the saints. There can be adoration, worship,
thanksgiving, but that's not love. Love is serving one another.
And serving one another is always costly, it's always irritating,
it's always aggravating, it's always a better option. There's
always a better option. I mean, there are types of people
that I could love easily. They don't bother me. They never
show up. They never have a problem. I
just love them to death. They're awesome. I never see
them. I guess it's, you know, it's
like I know I got that thing somewhere around the house. It
used to hang on the wall. I don't know where it is. It doesn't
get in the way. You don't have to dust it. You
don't have to deal with it. Of course you have fondness. Fondness is not love. Love is,
ah, this again. Fell off the wall. It's cracked.
It's broken. Got a dust, you know. Love hurts. Love costs. Our time, our energy,
our finances, our minds, parents. That's the four points of parenting.
Loving our children, that's what it costs us. Somebody write a
book about it. So we keep ourselves in the love
of God by loving others. This is the centrality of gospel
power. After salvation, the centrality of living in gospel power is
loving one another. But we as knuckleheads are gonna
mess it all up, and other knuckleheads are gonna mess it up for us,
but we love them and we celebrate the love of God in our dealings
with them. Folks that are not taught of God concerning His
sovereign love and His sovereign grace have a difficult time,
listen to this, resting in the gospel when the faith is maligned
in word or deed. I'll say that again, I wrote
it down so I would not forget it. Folks that are not taught
of God concerning His sovereign love and sovereign grace have
a difficult time resting in the gospel when the faith is maligned
in word or deed. Now what does that mean? It makes
people furious, judgmental, antagonistic, and that is not the fruit of
the Spirit. The Spirit of God has never given any of that to
any human being, ever. So anytime we feel just edgy, it is the flesh. The vocabulary list just then
in that four seconds was like, what do I say, edgy? That was
the culmination of that symposium. Then what do we do? Now those
people cannot accept the promises of God of resolution and purpose
as the saints. We pray in the Spirit. Romans
8 teaches us that. What is the Spirit? What's praying
in the Spirit? Let me make it simple for you. Praying the will
of God. What is the will of God? We see it right here in the letter
of Jude. How am I supposed to do it? God, tell me! I mean,
if I were God, I'd be like, here's your sign. I wrote it down, dummy. Wake up with Jude tattooed on
my tummy. So I'm eating my oatmeal and
I'm going, what is this? God's like, you said, send more
clearly the instruction. So Merry Christmas. By the way,
Jesus was born in the spring, but celebrate it anyway. Pray to the Spirit. Your will
be done. It cannot be done, by the way,
we can't even pray if we're not loving the saints. Because if
we're not loving the saints, and we're all twisted and turned,
when we pray out of a twisted spirit, it's not the Spirit.
That's why it's so easy for us to mimic David under oppression.
But none of us want to mimic Jesus under death. Forgive them,
Lord, they do not know what, Father, they do not know what
they do. Get them, Lord. Hurt them twice
as bad as you're hurting me. There's no prescription for the
Church of Christ to pray for them. Bless them who hurt me, Father.
Count them as your own. Turn them to your face. Give
them what you take from me, that they may have an abundant life.
Paul said, if it would possible, Take your grace from me and give
it to those who hate it. Jesus said that to the rich young
ruler, didn't he? You take everything you've worked for and give it
to the people that you hate. Do you know who rich people hate?
Needy people. So we pray in the spirit, we
wait for it by grace and we give grace. Look at that text. Pray, building yourself in the
most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keeping yourself
in the love of God by serving others, waiting for the mercy
of our Lord that leads to eternal life. So we wait by grace upon
grace. The grace of God, His mercy,
His intention, His power, effected in the life of His people unto
regeneration, the giving of the Son, the judicial reality of
the heavens and everything in the court of righteousness. These
are not real things. They're metaphorical expressions
of the mind of God. Okay? God's not walking around
dusting something upstairs going, oh, we've got a lot of rooms
here. We've got to start getting some more people in here. Check the
record book, Michael. Make sure that Tippin's name
is down there. I don't want to get the records wrong, you know,
judicially speaking. The docket's got to be right.
The docket is the mind of God. The remission of sins is the
mind of God. It's His work. There's not some ethereal court
trial going on in time. God is not in time. He owns it.
He created it so that we could be stressed out. So we wait by grace, the mercy
of God. He's coming for us. He promised
it. Wow. I can't believe that got cut
in front of me at McDonald's. I mean, we can't even wait for
McDonald's. How are we waiting for the Lord? And then we give grace to those
who get confused, to those who doubt, to those who need to be
rebuked. When did rebuke and encouragement
and admonishment not become synonymous in its effect, in its purpose,
and most importantly, in its intention? Love. Well, I'm loving
by telling it like it is and keeping it real, and I'm going
to put that guy in his place. That's not love. That's dumb.
That's baby stuff. Matter of fact, I know preschoolers
who are more mature than that. Don't put people in their place.
Don't opine personally toward an individual, indirectly. We give grace. Those who are
fearful and begin to doubt the Gospel truths. Those who go through
trials. Those who some falsehood comes
in and everybody's up in arms. We just sit around and rest and
talk about it and let the Word of God guide us. The Spirit of
God will give resolution and the people who don't have peace
are not in the Spirit. Why do I have peace with the
Gospels, my Lord? Come on! We're not primates,
people. Okay, I'll go from there. We
are, but we don't have to act like
them. And then I add this explanation
to the final point today, and I'll go along, but we do the
work of an evangelist. waiting for the mercy of the
Lord that leads to eternal life, and have mercy on those who doubt,
save others by snatching them out of the fire. It's an expression,
it's not a direct teaching. It's an expression. What fire? Trial? Judgment? Unbelief? To others show mercy
with fear, trepidation, humility, Hating the garment that is stained
by the flesh, but never the person that wears it. Do the work of an evangelist.
A true gospel lover has never... Listen to this. Oh Lord, help
me see this myself. A true gospel lover has never
hated the objects of his preaching. Even when he's correcting their
knuckle-headedness. He has never wanted to teach
the truth in anger or to show the heretics. This attitude is
of the enemy. If one becomes divisive and unwilling
to be that which God's word calls them to be, congregational correction
will flesh the matter out according to the instruction of Jesus.
And when there is a change of mind and forgiveness, it is finished. Unconditionally, finished. What
happens again three weeks later? We start from square one. It's
finished. And then the doxology, right?
Now to Him who is able. This is really where the preaching
ought to end today. To what? Keep you from falling. And to present you blameless
before His presence. with great joy. To this God,
our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty,
dominion, authority before all time and now and forevermore.
God keeps us from falling away. Even when we fall down or go
sideways, we will always come back. And that is a reason for
rejoicing. God has made us, declared us
to be holy in his presence. And we will be blameless before
Him because of Jesus Christ, not because of what He's making
us to be. Even in glorification, without the erasing of the record
of guilt and without the imputation of the God-man's perfection,
we are still guilty. Because it is not the corrupted
flesh that is the problem. It's the sinful conscience. He's
not going to wipe my mind. God's good story is our joy in
the presence of His glory with great joy. This is where we go
back to the gospel. How do we have joy in the midst
of everything? We rest in the cross of Christ. Period. And so when we proclaim the Gospel,
the evidences of God's working from the Gospel is faith, repentance,
all sorts of things that happen in the change and the transformation
of the mind. Sometimes immediately, sometimes existentially, sometimes
environmentally, and most always in the context of the assembly
as we learn and hear the Word of God taught. We celebrate the
fruits of the Gospel when someone believes. when someone is transformed,
when someone is born again. These are the fruits of the gospel. And without these fruits, we
declare no one to what? To be born again. Well, I just
don't believe that. All right, brother, let's just
go in your unbelief and worship Jesus that you don't believe
Him. I mean, see how silly that is? Without faith, you haven't been shown the gospel. God has accomplished this perfectly
in Jesus Christ, the only God, our Savior through Christ our
Lord. And the outcome of this is to the praise of His glorious
grace. We love Him and we praise Him for His mercy. And this is
how we contend for the faith, beloved. So different than what
the world does, right? And it is all in the protective
boundaries and precious boundaries of the local assembly. Because
if we can't love each other in these turmoils, then no one can. The recipients of grace and mercy
are the only ones who are equipped to love accordingly. And if we
have received it by God and by God alone, let us live it. Let's
prepare for the Lord's table. Father, we are thankful for this
opportunity to worship and to hear your word. And Lord, though
it may seem belabored and drawn out, I thank you, Lord, that
you've given some clarity in my mind about approaching who
the church is and what we should be. And most of all, Father, we thank
you for your grace. And Lord, that none of us should
sit here feeling guilty because we didn't see or we didn't do,
or we've been guilty of some of these infractions in the past. Because Lord, truth be known,
we will probably do it again. Just as Peter denied your son
three times, we do it all the time. And yet Jesus so graciously
said, feed my sheep, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. Our love is never perfect, but
your perfect love casts away our fear. Let us not fear error,
but let us hold fast to the truth without compromise. Gently, patiently,
and biblically help us. Help us to encourage each other
to seek your face because only those who have been born of you
can seek you. Only those who have been born of you can come
after you. Because only those who have been
born of you, Father, have the mind to see you and the ears
to hear you. The ears to hear your son, Jesus
Christ, who gave his body and blood as a payment for our sins.
It's in his name that we pray and in his name that we worship.
Amen.