The book of Jude, and I want
you to look with me at the third verse. Jude writes here by the Spirit
of God in this very brief epistle. And he says, Beloved, when I
gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, there is just one salvation. One salvation from God and one
salvation that saves sinners no matter who they are, or where
they are. He says, it was needful for me
to write unto you and exhort you. That means to
encourage you. Not just instruct you, but encourage
you in this. That you should earnestly contend for the faith, for the faith which was once
delivered unto the saints." Now, Jude is not saying here,
for these that he writes to, or for us to be contentious. Some people have an idea that
contending for the faith excuses their being contentious. No, that's not what he's talking
about. But he is earnestly exhorting
us, and he says that this is needful, that we do earnestly
contend for the faith." Not faiths, but just as Paul
says in another place, there is one Lord, one faith. And the faith that he urges us
to contend for The truth for which we must contend is the
revelation of God, the Holy Scriptures. And that which is written in
this book, which is the truth, and which has to do with Christ
Himself who said Himself, I am the truth. I am the truth. And so the faith for which we
are to contend could simply be boiled down to this, I suppose. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The faith has to do with who
He is and what He's done. And this is the gospel of the
grace of God, grace and truth. You can't separate them. And
Paul says, if you remember, anything that is not grace is another
gospel. And so he is saying here, this
is all about the person and work of Christ. And someone a long
time ago, I don't know who it was or when it was, and it seems
to just kind of get passed down, but somebody a long time ago
condensed this faith with its central and fundamental issues
down to about eight or so statements. And they go right to the very
heart of what true Christianity really
is. You see, if you stop and think
about all the things that are alike in religions, you say, well, a Christian is
a nice person. There are nice people everywhere.
Or a Christian is generous. There are generous people anywhere
and everywhere. And then people give a long list
of what a Christian will do and what a Christian won't do, and
there are people in every religion that are found doing these things
or not doing them. So what is it that actually distinguishes
Christianity and the faith that is inseparably joined to it. And when you stop and think about
these things and when you read them in the Bible, if we read
them as from God, you will either accept all of these or you will
reject all of them. There is not any middle ground.
Men have a notion sometimes with the issues of the gospel that
they're on the fence and they're trying to decide one way or the
other how many of these things they're going to believe and
accept, how many they're going to reject. Not so. Not so. And you cannot be indifferent
to them. They are things that simply will
not allow us to be indifferent to them, and there can be no
room, not one inch of room, with regard to compromise in any of
these things. They either all stand together
or they all fall together. They're either all true or they're
all false. Here's the first one. And that
is that the Bible, true Christians, God's people, believers, those
born of the Spirit of God, they believe that the Bible is in
its entirety the Holy, inspired, and as the Bible says literally,
God-breathed, infallible, inerrant Word of God. It is either all
that or it is in its entirety a lie. And it would be a lie
through which the very souls of men would be deceived and
eternally damned. It's not a buffet. You don't
go to the Bible and pick out what you want to believe here
and not believe what's over here. You don't go take this as true
and that is not true. It'd be like the man who sat
under the preaching of a preacher for a while, and he came to him
one day and handed him the front and the back cover of his Bible. And he said, why are you handing
me that? He said, that's all the Bible you've left me with.
Every time you said this wasn't true, or this wasn't inspired,
or this wasn't of God, I took it out. And so now this is all
I have left. No. Either all is true or none
of it's true. It's all the Word of God or it's
the Word of man that cannot believe. It's from heaven or it's from
hell, but it can't be both. And if the Bible is not the Word
of God, we ought to simply dispense of it and dispose of it But if
it is as it claims to be and is the holy Word of God, we do
well to pay close attention to it. We better be about reading
what it says. We better be about studying the
Scriptures. We'd better be about seeking
grace from God to understand what He's saying. Because in
most cases, the problem isn't so much with our understanding
what He says, it's with our willingness to receive what He says. But the Bible, and I tell you,
I've just got no time. I've got no time, I've got no
basis upon which to discuss anything, no ground upon which to reason
with anybody who does not believe that this book is literally,
verbally the inspired, inerrant Word of the Living God. And it must, in the light of
that, as the old confessions would say, and then sometimes
turn from that. It must be our only rule of faith
and practice. It has to be the only basis upon
what we believe and what we do. Turn over and look in 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy. and the third chapter and the
sixteenth or fifteenth verse. Paul, writing to Timothy, says
in verse fifteen, And thou from a child thou hast known the holy which are able to make thee wise
unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." All
Scripture. You see, either that's true or
it's not true. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness, for whatever need we have as
the Lord's people, that the man of God may be perfect, truly
furnished unto all good works. That's why we have so many counselors
in religion in our day. And that's because men and women
want to go to somebody that's going to tell them something
different from what God says in His Word. This is the first
thing. This book is God's Word. It is God's breathed revelation
of Himself and His Son and His salvation. And there is no other. There is none of this, God woke
me up this morning and He gave me this new revelation. Absolutely
not. If you add to this book, He says,
I'll add the curses of this book to you. And so that's where we begin.
And that's where we stay. And that's what we have to earnestly
contend for. This and only this tells us what
we are to believe and what we are to do. All right? Here's the next thing. We absolutely must contend that
God Almighty is absolutely sovereign in total control of everything
in every moment, or either there is no God. Now, you just stop and think
about it. There can only be one God, because to be God has involved
in it, in the very fact of God and essence of God, the ability,
the authority and the willingness to do what you please. What does God do? What He pleases. What He pleases. Turn over in
your Bibles to Psalm 135. I could just give you verse after
verse. But look over here in Psalm 135
and the sixth verse. And the psalmist says, Whatsoever
the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and in
earth, in the seas, and all deep places." The depths of hell, the depths
of outer space, there's nothing, there's no place, there's no
realm that is not covered in that statement. And if we didn't
understand that, like Nebuchadnezzar says, He does according to His own
will in the armies of heaven and amongst the inhabitants of
earth, and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What doest
thou? And all we hear around us every
day is something like this, well, God wants to do this, and God's
trying to do this, and God would do this, and all this kind of
stuff. When the Scripture says, whatsoever He desires, that's
what He does. Whatever happens, it happens
because He desired it. Whatever is done, it happens
because it was His will. And there is no middle ground
between these two things. Either God is an absolute, total
sovereign, or we ought to be absolute, total atheists. Because I'll tell you this, atheism
is a whole lot more logical than the stupid, foolish notions of
freewillism and Arminianism, which make man to be a god, and
it denies the very plain statements of Scripture. He is God, the
only true God, the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
and everything is of Him and through Him and by Him and for
Him. I forget who it was, some old
preacher a long time ago. They said there is no third choice
between an absolute sovereign God and no God. Can't be two free wills in this
universe. Can't be two eternal purposes
in this universe. God is God. He sits on high. He moves as He will. He does
what He will. He rules and He reigns. And beside Him, there is no other. Do we believe that? We have to
insist on that. He's God. He's the King. He's the Ruler. He's the one
with whom we have to do. And here's the third thing. We
have to insist on this. We have to earnestly contend
for it, because these things men try to delude and steal away. And that's this. Man is an absolutely, totally depraved, completely dead in trespasses
and sin, he is either a spiritually lifeless, helpless, doomed, depraved,
lost sinner, or either there is nothing wrong with him, and
therefore he doesn't even need a Savior. Look over in Romans 5. Romans 5 and verse 12. Paul says, Wherefore, as by one
man sin entered into the world. He's talking about Adam there. And death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men." You know, everybody likes universalism until God speaks
of it. And so, death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned. That literally says, for that
when Adam sinned, Since he was a representative man and represented
all his race before God, all sinned in him. And all died in
him. And all became sinners in him. And all were separated from God
in him. Cast out of that garden in him. And there is no such thing, cannot
be any such thing as any kind of a partial depravity because
sin, when it pollutes, it pollutes totally. We use that term, total depravity. What we do not mean is that every
son of Adam, every daughter of Adam, does not mean that we all
are, that all people are as bad as they could be. The only difference, though,
that distinguishes any of us from the rest of us has to be
His restraining grace. But what this Bible teaches is
there is not one aspect of our being, our mind, our will, our
thoughts, our affections, there is not one part of our being,
and especially not our will, that is not tainted and polluted
by sin. So our thoughts are sin, our
words are sin, our deeds are sin, our motives are sinful. And sin always brings forth death. We're not half bad. We're not
half alive. We're not half good. We're totally,
100% sinful. And we are either that or we're
totally 100% righteous in ourselves, but there's nothing in the middle.
It'd be like saying, well, here's a glass of water. It's only half
poison. Poison doesn't work like that,
does it? Sin doesn't work like that either. Man is a sinner,
lost, dead in trespasses and sin, hopeless in himself. All right? Here's the fourth
thing, and I've got to hurry. We have to contend for this,
and that is that God chose of His own volition, of His own
will, He chose out of love a particular distinguishing and discriminating
love, he chose to save some of Adam's fallen race, and they
were chosen unto salvation. Just go to 2 Thessalonians chapter
2 and verse 13. He had chosen them, not to an
opportunity, but he chose them unto salvation, and unto eternal
life in Christ before the world began." Well, where did we get
that from? Well, it says it in this book.
It says it in Ephesians 1. It says it there in II Thessalonians. It says it there in John. You
see, salvation, as the Bible says it is, is because of something
that God has done. It has to do not with man's decision,
but with God's choice, which He made in Christ before the
world began. It has to do with God's will
and not man's will. It's grace, which is God's gift
and not man's works. And if God did not choose to
save and choose whom He willed to save, No sin would ever be
saved. Since we're here in Romans, just
turn over to Romans 9. Romans chapter 9. Look down,
if you would, in verse 15. For he saith to Moses, God saith
to Moses, Paul saith, I will have mercy on whom I will have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion,
so then it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs,
but of God that shows mercy. For the Scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will, and whom he will, he'll have mercy on whom he will, he
hardeneth. And thou wilt say then unto me,
Why dost he yet find fault? for who has resisted his will? Nay, but O man, who art thou
that replyest against God." Shall the thing formed say to him that
formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter
power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto
honour and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to show
His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that He might
make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy
which He had aforeprepared unto glory? He chose His people. And it says, in love, He not
only chose them, but He predestinated all things concerning them to
assure that they would know His love and receive His salvation
and enjoy every spiritual blessing in Christ, worlds without end. And then there's this. We absolutely contend that the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is none other than the Son of God Himself,
God manifest in the flesh, He is altogether the one singular
and the one alone and effectual Redeemer and Savior of His people. He either has saved them from
their sins and is therefore Jesus, or He is an imposter. He is a
failure. If our Jesus does not save all
His people by Himself from all their sins, We got the wrong
one. Because that's what the Scripture
says. You'll call His name Jesus because He'll save all His people.
Not He might. He will. He does. He asks from
all their sins. And there is no middle ground. Any other Christ is antichrist. Any other Jesus who does not
do that, who only makes men savable or helps them save themselves
or does the most of the work and is now up to you, that's
not the one. He's the Almighty. And He either
came and He did what He came to do or He just simply failed. And if he's a failure, he's not
God. And if he fails, we don't have
any salvation. We don't have a Savior. But the Lord Jesus Christ, He is the Savior, He is the salvation,
and there is none other. And everything that He has done,
Everything as the Mediator, as Jehovah's Servant, as the Great
Shepherd of the Sheep, everything has four things about it. Number one, He did it all sovereignly. He did it all by Himself. and according to his own will
and purpose. Why? Because his will and the
will of the Fathers is one. The second thing that characterizes
what he did is that it is a work of substitution. He did it for
us. He did it in our place. He did
it standing as we are before God on our behalf. as our substitute. And he did it also to the satisfaction
of God. He satisfied God, honored God
in every aspect. And he did it successfully. Absolutely
successfully. And if those things don't characterize
the Jesus of men, he's not God's Son. And then here's this again. Men are dead, as I said, in trespasses
and sin, and as such, they must be regenerated. And because of
their own natural unwillingness, they must be called to life and
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by that omnipotent working of
the Spirit of God. For there is no hope. None. If it's left up to men and women
who are spiritually dead to raise themselves, no. To give themselves
life, no. To come up with faith that the
Bible says they don't have by nature, it's the gift of God,
no. And so what's necessary, what
we insist upon and must contend for is that men will not by their
own wills do anything. They must be made willing in
the day of God's power. This isn't just a matter of changing
horses. It isn't a matter of switching
denominations. It's a matter of being brought
from death to life, from error to truth. And all the preaching in the
world, even all the preaching of the gospel in the world, falls
on deaf ears to men and women who are dead
in trespasses and sin. And they must be given life. They must be raised up. And the only hope for a dead
sinner is almighty grace. Grace that does not ask for anything. Grace that gives the sinner everything,
including that life and faith. And grace that waits for nothing, but does everything. Paul writing to the church at
Ephesus in that second chapter, he says, you were dead in trespasses
and sin, you were by nature the children of wrath as others,
you followed the devil just like everybody else, you walked in
the same course and conversation of life as everybody else, but God came to where you were. and
quickened you. You hath He quickened. He brought you to life. He gave to you faith. He enabled you to see spiritually. He enabled you to lay hold of
eternal life in Christ spiritually. And that's the only hope for
a dead sinner. Sixteen verses of Just As I Am
won't do it. All the powerful persuasion and
sad stories and all that, that won't bring a man to life. We contend that the Spirit's
work is necessary. And apart from it, there is no
salvation. And then we have to contend for
this, too. And that is that the people of God in Christ Those
that are set free by the Lord Jesus Christ are entirely free
from the law as the Scriptures declare us to be, or either they
are yet in the bondage of the law and are under a complete
obligation to keep it in every part. We are going to keep all of the
law. or none of it. Because he says,
if we are guilty of offending in one part, then we are guilty of offending
in the whole. And there is no such thing as
being partly under the law and partly free from the law. You
don't ever find that in Bible terms. Turn over to Galatians
chapter 3. Galatians 3. It's just amazing
the light that the Word of God throws on all these issues. Galatians
chapter 3. And look down at verse 10. For
as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse,
for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not
in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God It is evident, for the just shall
live by faith. And the law is not of faith,
but the man that doeth them shall live in them." But look at this
thirteenth verse. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. And that's all it can do a sinner
like me and you. being made a curse for us, for
it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. Paul says in Romans 10, Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness, whether to save or to sanctify,
for every one that believeth. The only way that a sinner can
satisfy and establish and fulfill and honor the law is through
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, believers, we don't
make void the law. We establish the law by believing
on Christ. And here's the last thing. We
have to contend for this. And that is every saved sinner,
every redeemed sinner, every believing born-again sinner,
every one of God's elect, every one of them shall persevere to
the end. Every one of them. Every one
that doesn't. Not God's child. But their persevering
is not what saves them. Their persevering is not what
keeps them from failing and falling ultimately and finally. But God's
preserving grace. Somebody said, do you believe
in the perseverance of the saints? I do because I believe in the
preserving grace of God. And they are preserved and kept
by God's unchanging grace. And none of them shall ultimately
and finally fall away. Whatever the chastisements needed
to keep them, whatever is needed in this world to preserve them, they will persevere because the
purpose of God requires it, and because the purchase of Christ
demands it, and because the power of the Spirit will see to it. They'll persevere because they'll
be preserved in Christ Jesus. Look back at our text there in
Jude. And look back at this last two
verses in Jude's epistle. He says in verse 24, 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 him that is able to do it, to the only wise God our Savior,
be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and ever. Amen. Amen. Now, there are a whole lot of
political issues. Who cares? Who cares? There are a lot of things just
not worth discussing. A lot of questions Brother Richardson
said one time, not even worth answering. But there are some things that
are worth our earnestly contending for. And these things, as they
pertain to Christ and Him crucified, they are the faith. God give us grace to know, to
believe, and the courage to earnestly
contend for faith. Our Father, tonight we give You
thanks that You have made Your Word so clear. that what stands between men
and the belief of it is a blindness and a deception and a fallen
nature, an unwillingness to look, to receive it as your
truth, to believe it, Lord, we pray that You would work in our hearts,
enable us to do it, to lay hold of it, to stand by it and to
believe it and earnestly contend for it. We pray that You would give us
grace, and by a steady and faithful
preaching of it and witness of it, may you be pleased to call
out your sheep. They are the faithful that you
speak of who believe and who love the
faith. And to them you will always prove
faithful, and we give you thanks. Lord, these things are our hope, and we believe you. No matter
what anybody else says, we believe you. You've proven
yourself faithful to us, brought to our hearts and minds joy and
peace, rest to our conscience. by revealing these things not
only to us, but in us, and giving to us the love of the truth. Lest we pray, all your people,
all your servants that labor faithfully to contend and preach
the faith, we pray that you might get honor
and glory to yourself And we ask it in Christ's name.
Amen.