The only chapter. Jude, verse
3. That's what we'll deal with tonight. Jude, verse 3. Jude said he was a servant of
Jesus Christ. And what a blessing, what an
honor to be a servant, a bondslave of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our
master was a servant, waited on his own people, washed his
disciples' feet. And he is the brother of James,
and he's writing to those that are sanctified, separated, set
apart by God the Father, those that are preserved in Christ
Jesus, kept by Christ, guarded by Christ, upheld by Christ,
and called. And he put called in last even
though it's the first evidence of our sanctification and preservation
is when calling comes first. And then mercy and peace and
love be multiplied. And then he says here, Beloved,
when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common
salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort
you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was
once delivered unto the saints. Let me say just a few things
about this, in this verse. Of course, I could, oh my, you
could take line upon line about it. The first thing he says,
beloved. Beloved. Why would he call them
beloved? Because they were beloved. They were, first of all, beloved
of God. Romans, when Paul wrote to the Romans, he says, to all
that be in Rome, beloved of God. Everybody in Rome wasn't beloved
of God. But he said, all that be in Rome
who are beloved of God. And there's a people in this
world that's been beloved of God from the foundation of the
world. And he read it tonight after the kindness. Talked about,
oh, how we were full of malice and wickedness, envy and hating
and hating one another. But, but after the kindness and
love of God, our Savior, toward man appeared, not by works of
righteousness which we have done. And so we were beloved of God.
And not only that, but they was beloved of Him. He loved them. He loved these people He was
writing to. You know, God's preachers love God's people wherever they
are. And I was in three different places last week preaching. And
in every one of those places, I've been there many times. I've
known those people for years and years and years. And I tell
you, I was, you know, a little overwhelmed on Sunday night.
I got to thinking about how long I've known Todd and been up there.
And there's folks who have been married and raised a family since
I first started going up there. And so you see, you can't help
but love people like that. You know them for years and years
and years. And they're there, they're faithful,
and they raise families. And they come to hear the Gospel.
And so these, he says, beloved of God. Beloved. God loves you. You're beloved of God. You're
beloved of Me. And then, not only that, but
God's people love one another. You know, beloved. And that's
why I often say beloved. And let me show you what I mean.
Look what our Lord said over in John's Gospel, chapter 13.
You know, God's people love one another. They're beloved of one
another. In John 13, look what our Savior
says here. And that's why he says, let this
love be multiplied among you. Don't just be satisfied with
just love. Let it grow. Let it be multiplied. Let love be multiplied among
you. Let it grow instead of just loving once. Let it be multiplied. Let it grow. Let it abound. And our Savior said here in verse
34, John 13, a new commandment I give unto you, that you love
one another. as I have loved you, that ye
also love one another. By this shall all know that ye
are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." That's how the world knows we
love one another. Then back over here in Jude.
So their beloved And then he says, and he gave all diligence.
When he gave all diligence, diligence here means zeal, earnestness. I mean, you know, be diligent
in all your business. Be earnest in it. He says, I
gave all diligence. I was zealous. I was earnest
to write unto you. And I needed to do this. I was,
you know, you had, I had some things to say, and I was full
of zeal about it, and I was earnest about it. I have some things
I need to tell you about. And the first thing he wrote,
told him about, I gave all diligence right unto you, of the common
salvation. Common salvation. I'll never forget one time, a
preacher that I knew left his wife, had been married for twenty-something
years. And nobody was going to do it,
and he told me he was, and I said, you can't do that. I said, you
just can't do that. You'll have to get out of the
ministry. You just can't do that. And he did, and we talked about
it, and I said, well, you know, as far as I'm concerned, it's
just nothing. That's just it. We just can't have no fellowship
now. And he says, well, the fact of the matter is, we don't have
nothing in common anyway. And when he says that, we don't
have a common salvation in faith, we don't have a common faith
in the common salvation. And, beloved, let me show you
something here. Look over at Titus. He just told you. Titus,
that one little book, that before the book of Hebrews. Titus, let
me show you something he talked about here. Common salvation.
And he is an apostle now. He's the brother, a half-brother
of the Lord Jesus Christ. James was a brother. And he's
an apostle here, and he's writing this letter to these people.
And he says, I'm writing it to you, the common salvation. What
salvation I have is the same salvation you have. It's common
among the Lord's people. It's nothing you know. Everybody
has the same salvation. And it's a common salvation in
the sense that it's only common to those who have it. And look
what he says here in verse 4 of Titus chapter 1. To Titus, my
own son, after the common faith. Common faith. Now what does he
mean by common faith? Well, let me tell you what, common
salvation, it means this, and the common faith means this.
We're chosen by the same grace. Chosen by the same grace. Amen,
beloved, it was grace that was given us in Christ before the
world began. We have that in common. We all
have the same Christ. It was Christ, beloved, there's
no other name given under heaven whereby we must be saved. Jesus
Christ is saved today, yesterday, and forever. It was the Lord
Jesus Christ, as I said this morning, who came to us and opened
our understanding, gave us a vision of Himself, gave us a sight of
Himself, made Himself known to us. We all have the same Savior. We all have the same Redeemer.
We've all been washed in the same blood. We've all been brought
to believe the same Savior. We've all been brought down to
bow down to Him and submit to Him and believe Him and take
His yoke upon us. And there's never been any Savior
but Christ. And we don't want to help Him.
We're not trying to work it out. You know, we're not trying to
add anything to Him or take anything from Him. We give Him all the
glory in this business of salvation. That's what he says, by the washing
up of the gym, not by works of righteousness we've done, but
by His own mercy He saved us. Everybody that's got this salvation
knows that it was mercy that saved us. That it was the Spirit
that regenerated us. That we were justified by the
grace of God. And I tell you, when he talks
about this common salvation, it means that we had the same
salvation that Abel had. We have the same salvation Noah
had, Jacob had, Abraham had. You know, that's why our Lord
Jesus Christ, He said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day and saw
it. Oh, beloved, we all have the
same power that keeps us, the same power that calls us, the
same power that preserves us, the same power that teaches us.
We all, beloved, trust in Christ and all believe in the same law
that was fulfilled in our room and stand. And let me show you
over in Romans 3.22. Let me show you this. Romans
3.22. Oh, man, we're all justified
by the same righteousness. There ain't but one righteousness
in the Bible, and that's the righteousness of God, the righteousness
of Christ God, and the Father is one and the same. And you've
got to be it. Do you know what kind of righteousness
you've got to have to be saved? The very righteousness of God
itself. How good do you have to be saved? As good as God.
How much law do you have to keep before you're saved? All of it. How obedient do you have to be?
Perfect. You not only must not sin, but
you must always do what's right. The negative is not doing it,
the positive is doing it. Where are you going to get a
righteousness and a goodness and an obedience like that? Right
here it tells us. In Romans 3.21 it says this,
But now the righteousness of God without the law, apart from
the law, He is manifested, brought out for everybody to see, being
witness to all, and the prophets, they bore witness to it. Watch
it now, even the righteousness of God, by faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe, and there ain't no difference
in any of them, Jew or Gentile, dog or free, male or female.
So we all have the same righteousness, and we all have the same precious
faith. Peter says, he wrote unto them who obtained like precious
faith with us. And I hear that's what he says.
Everybody who has faith is precious to them. And beloved, they obtained
it. Whether it's weak faith or strong
faith, it didn't tell him how strong it was, how weak it was.
He just says them that have obtained like precious faith. Now, beloved,
I don't know how strong it is. I don't know how weak it is.
I know one thing. Sometimes you feel like you don't
have any. Other times you feel like you could fight an army.
And other times you feel like, you know, beloved, you've already
been defeated. But I'll tell you one thing. I know that faith
that God gives you, whether it's weak or strong, it's precious. It is precious. We all have the
same precious faith. And we're all under the same
rule. Let me show you that in Galatians in just a minute. All
of God's people, Galatians chapter 6, we all walk by the same rules. This common salvation, this is,
we all have things in common. You know, we all have Adam in
common. We all have our sin in common. We have the weakness of our flesh
by common. We're all members of Adam's fallen
race, we all have that in common. So what we had in common in Adam,
we have now in common in Christ. What we all had something in
Adam, we all had everything we had in common. All of us have
our endemic nature. All of us has fear in All of
us have pride in common. All of us have self-righteousness
in common. We all have so many things in common. And that's
the same way it is when God saves us. He gives us all the same
things. We all have everything in common
in Christ. In Galatians, we all walk by
the same rule. Look what it says in verse 14. No, excuse me, not verse 14,
but verse 16. Excuse me, verse 16. And as many
as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy,
and upon the Israel of God." Now, what rule is he talking
about? First of all, let me give you this one, verse 14. This
is the rule he's talking about. But God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross. God forbid that I should boast
in Glory in, rejoice in, brag about anything but the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The world is crucified unto me
and I'm unto the world. That's the first rule we walk
by. We only glory in Christ and what He accomplished on the cross.
We glory in nothing else. And then watch in this. But for
in Christ Jesus, circumcision availed anything. People say,
well, I've been circumcised and I'm living a good holy life and
I'm a Jew and I've cleaned up my life. No, I'm circumcised.
Well, you know, I've got all this liberty in Christ and I
can do what I want to and all that. But those don't amount
to anything. They don't avail anything. But here's what avails,
being a new creation, being a new creature in Christ. And so, going
in the cross, And understanding that nothing we say or do avails
nothing, it's only being made a new creation, a new creature
in Christ. And if we walk according to this rule, peace be on them. And all of us walk according
to that rule. With glory in the cross, we understand that God
makes us new creatures in Christ. And then we're all members of
the same body. I've got to show you that too
in Ephesians. You know, we're talking about common. I could
go on and on and on with this, but I'm quitting. This will be
the last one before I go on to the next one. But look here in
Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 4. We're all members of the same
body. I was talking to Clay Curtis
yesterday afternoon, and Clay was talking about he's going
to preach from Romans 12. 1 and 2, I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies.
And he was going to go on down there where we're members of,
we all have to say we're all members of one body, though we
are many members, yet we're members of one body. And he's going to
talk about when he says, present your bodies, he's talking about
all of us have to do it at the same time when we present it
to Christ. But he went on to say, he says, he says, you got
to start in Romans 11. And verse 36, for of him, through
him, and to him, whom are all things, be glory both now and
forever. So therefore, brethren, I beseech
you, present by the mercies of God. Since God did everything
now. And see, we all, all of us, we're
many members, but yet it's one body, the body of Christ. And
look here, what he says in verse 4. Ephesians 4, 4. There is one
body and one spirit, even as you call it, one hope when you
call it. One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all who is above all and through all
and in you all. We all have that coming. We all got the same thing going
there. What you got, I got it. We all
have just one thing. Alright, back over in Jude. Back
over in Jude. I love to see things like that. Then not only did I write unto
you, I was earnest and zealous about writing unto you of the
common salvation, but it was needful for me, necessary for
me to write unto you and exhort you. Necessary. You know, what
made it so necessary, needful for me to write unto you? Because
I have great love for you, great zeal. I love you. And because there's a great danger,
and there's always a great danger of heresy. And you go down, that's
what he said in verse 4, for there are certain men crept in
unawares. And you go down through here.
Like Korah, you know Moses was the preacher. Moses was the leader
of Israel. Moses, typical of Christ. Moses
used of God. Moses. I mean God greatly used
him. And you'd think nobody in their
right mind would stand up and ridicule Moses and try to intrude
and tell Moses that he didn't know nothing and that Moses needed
some help. But Cora did. Cora did. You say, why in the
world would make a fellow want to try to withstand Moses and
say, Moses, you ain't nothing special. You ain't no more special
than the rest of it. Well, the only thing that made
Moses different than anybody else was God put him where he
was at. God's the one that called him
to be the deliverer. And they decided, well, we got
as much authority around here as you do. And so that's what
I'm telling you. He says, these things, dangers
happen, dangers all around. And I need for me to write to
you about this dangers that we have, dangers of heresy, dangers
of pride, dangers of men intruding into things they ought not intrude
in. And you know, God has his seasons of warnings and trials.
He has a great seasons of warnings and trials. He has seasons to
warn us, seasons to try us, and when He says, wait, you look
at the churches in Revelations, oh my, Christ came and warned
them people. He warned them. And he told them,
I give you a space to repent, I've told you what's happening,
you've got that Jezebel in there, you've got the spirit of Jezebel
in the Nicoletan, and I'm warning you, I'm giving you a space to
repent, and if you don't, I'm turning out the light. And boy,
there's been many a place where God's turned out the light, and
that's when he said, it's needful for me, oh my, to warn you. to warn you. And how did our
Lord tell that bunch? He said, you know, He says, we
pipe to you and you wouldn't dance. We mourn and you wouldn't lament.
There's nothing we can say to suit you, nothing we can do to
please you. If you wanted music, we'd give
you music. If you wanted more, then we'd
mourn. And nothing suited you, won't unto you then, He said.
And that's what he said, you know, it's needful for us here
to write about you. And if need be, he said, a year
in heaven is through great men of faith, men of old temptations
and trials. And all beloved, Paul was on
the Damascus road. It was need be. He'd be on the
Damascus Road for Christ to put him in the dust. And then from
Damascus Road to Mars Hill, preaching the Lord Jesus Christ and the
sovereignty of God and the glory of God on Mars Hill, and then
going to jail in Philippi for being on Mars Hill, then being
in jail in Philippi. Every one of them was a need
be. Need be. And that's why he's saying here
it's needful, because there's a great danger. And beloved,
we must all deal. Just back over here in 2 Peter,
just a minute, back over, just a book or two back behind you,
2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 12. We must all deal with necessary
things and preach necessary doctrines over and over and over and over,
and deal with our generation. It's one thing to preach about
sins generations ago, but we've got to deal with our generation
we live in and the sins of our day. and the dangers of our day. And he said here in verse 12
of 2 Peter 1, 12, Wherefore, I will not be negligent. I'll
not be negligent. I mean, it's necessary to put
you always in remembrance of these things, though you know
them. I'm going to put you in remembrance of them. You know
these things. You've been taught them over and over and over again.
And I won't be negligent. I'm going to put you in remembrance,
though you know them. And though you even established
in the present truth, I'm going to tell you over and over and
over. That's why I said, so back over
in our text here, it was needful for me to write unto you. Necessary.
Necessary. And then, oh, it exhorts you,
exhorts you to earnestly, now watch what he says now, that
you should earnestly contend for the faith once delivered
to the saints. Now, first thing I think of when
I see that, that you should earnestly contend for the faith, which
was once delivered unto the first thing I thought of when I read
that and prepared for this message, is there are some things we're
not to contend for. He gives us one charge here of
what we're to contend for. A lot of things we're not to
contend for. A lot of things not worth fighting about. A lot
of things not worth contending about. A lot of things not worth
fighting over. As old Scott said, a lot of books
not worth not reading, a lot of conversations not worth having,
a lot of places not worth going, a lot of people not worth knowing. Ain't that right? And there's
a lot of things not worth contending for when it's all said and done. You know, a lot of arguments
over things, it's just absolutely But I tell you, he gives us something
that's worth contending for here. And not only worth contending
for, but we should earnestly contend for it. And what is it?
It's the faith. It's the faith that's once delivered
unto the saints. The faith. Now, what faith is
he talking about? Well, there's two faiths in the
Scriptures, I think, that he's talking about here, but one in
particular, and I'll give them to you. The faith once delivered
to the saints. And this is, again, common salvation. We all have the same faith, we
all believe the same things, but there's the gift of faith
that God gives us. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. And then
there's the doctrine of faith, that which we are to believe.
The faith that's delivered us, the faith that's preached to
us, and the faith means the things that... You know, they'll say,
what faith are you? You say, I'm a Baptist or I'm a Methodist,
but when the Scriptures talks about faith, here, in this verse,
earnestly contend for the faith, it's talking about the gospel.
It's talking about the things that we're to believe. It's talking
about the order of our faith, the things, the truths, the gospel
truths, the things that's been delivered unto us. Now, but both,
the truth of the doctrine of faith and the gift of faith,
both are too precious and too good to be lost. I don't want
to lose the faith that's been given unto me, that God gave
me. I don't want to lose that. And
I certainly don't want to lose that gospel that God gave us. And faith, sound doctrine, that's
what he's talking about here. And that's what he means, contend
for it, what's necessary to believe, and what we've been given to
believe. And it talks about it was delivered. Now, when he talks
about delivered, now, beloved, that means that it wasn't an
invention of men. Man didn't come up with it. It's
not something that people go out here and discover. It's something
that's brought to you and given to you and delivered over to
you. Given to us to keep it. Delivered
to the saints to preserve it. And to pass it down from one
generation to the next. Look in Hebrews 1 with me just
a minute. What our Savior done. You know it was delivered to
Christ. Look what it says here now. Hebrews 1.1. who says, God who has sundry
times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets. Now, beloved, he gave them the
faith. He started teaching them, started instructing them. And
there was a real dim light back there when God began to teach.
And as God began to teach through the Old Testament, the light
got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and brighter and brighter
and brighter until Christ came on the scene. until the Son of
Righteousness arose. And so God taught them. But listen
now, has in these last days spoken unto us everything that the Father
taught the Old Testament saying, Christ our Lord was delivered
with all the truth, all the faith, all the... That's what he said
this morning, I have come to bear witness to the truth. I
am the truth. And who hath in these last days
spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all
things, by whom also he made the world?" So God gave him the
Word, gave him the gospel, and he delivered the gospel to us.
And then not only that, but he delivered it to the apostles
here in chapter 2, Hebrews 2. I think it's Hebrews 2. Let's
see now. Yeah. It says here in verse 3,
Hebrews 2, 3, How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation
which at first began to be spoken by the Lord, Christ spoken, and
was confirmed unto us by them that heard him, God also bearing
them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers
miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will.
So he received, God spoke, and then he delivered it to the apostles,
and the apostles delivered it to us. And God began to deliver
this back in the Old Testament. And he talked about, Paul, when
he wrote to the Romans, he says, to them who are obedient to the
faith. Obedient to what faith? The gospel
that was delivered unto them. The truth that was delivered
unto them. Abel had this faith delivered unto him. He didn't
have much faith and didn't have it as clear as we have. But the
very fact that God went and called him out, that God clothed his
neck in this, that God shed the blood, that God spoke to him,
he had some light. That was the faith. That's why
he offered that lamb. That's why he offered that lamb.
And all beloved, and Noah had it. The Scripture said he was
a preacher of righteousness. He preached righteousness for
120 years. It didn't say he preached against
drunkenness. It didn't say he preached against pornography.
It didn't say he preached against conservatism or liberalism. It
didn't say he done any of those. It didn't say that he preached
against nothing. All it said was he was a preacher
of righteousness for 120 years. And he found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. That's the faith we're preaching.
That's the faith delivered. Grace was delivered to us. And
I'll tell you, Enoch had it. The scripture said Enoch walked
with God. How could he walk with God if he didn't know God? How
could he trust Christ if he didn't know Christ? How did he walk? Isaiah had it. And all, two things, two things
about this faith. And Gary in his prayer was both
of them. First of all, he said, I saw
you in your glory. Oh, and I saw the Lord high and
lifted up in His glory. That's the first thing you see.
And then you cry out, oh, it's me. And all that other, those two
things get established, you won't have no problem with nothing
else. And Ruth had it. Ruth had the faith delivered
to her. Oh, stay here and worship your
gods. I ain't even going to worship my gods. No, no, no, no, no.
Them gods can't do nothing for me. Where you go, I'm going. Your god's going to be my god
and your people's going to be my people." And, oh, she was
redeemed. And Abraham, he had it. He had
the faith delivered unto him. Jacob had it delivered unto him.
Malachi had it delivered unto him. Oh, John the Baptist had
it delivered to him. Huh? And, O beloved, this faith
that was once delivered unto the saints, it's called the word
of faith. Over in Romans 10, it's the word of faith which
we preach. What is the word of faith which we preach? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ that thou shalt be saved. Huh? For with the heart man believes
unto righteousness, as with the mouth confession is made unto.
You believe that there is one righteousness. And it's called
the word of faith. And Paul called it the faith
of the gospel. Labor with me and pray for me for the faith
of the gospel. And it's called the mystery of
faith. Hold the mystery of the faith in a good conscience. And
here in verse 20 of Jude, it's called our most holy faith. Look
what's called there. Jude, verse 20. But you, beloved,
building up yourselves on your most holy faith. Oh, holy faith. Huh? It is holy faith. It comes from a holy God, given
to a holy people. And it makes His people holy.
It makes them trust Christ. And, oh, beloved, let me talk
about some of these things of the faith, some of the things
that's delivered to us, things we have to believe, things that
we hold dear, things that we preach, things that we earnestly
contend for. This is one of the things we
earnestly contend for. We earnestly contend for the
Trinity. Oh, my, we start out with God. The gospel, the faith,
always starts with God. It does not start with us, it
starts with God. We start with God. God in three persons, but yet
one God. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Ghost. And oh God who is the Father,
the Son took the place of the servant, the Holy Ghost come
to administer what the Son and the Father purpose. The Holy
Spirit, His person in work. Oh, we earnestly contend for
that. And oh, beloved, we earnestly contend for man's state and condition
by nature. A lot of people think a man don't
become a sinner until he starts sinning. No, he starts sinning
because he's a sinner. People think there's an age of
accountability. When the Scripture says that
as soon as the wicked be born, they go astray and come from
their mother's womb speaking lies. I've got the precious,
greatest, little, beautiful, little, great granddaughter you've
ever seen. But I tell you what, she'll lie, she'll lie. You'll
think she'll act like she's fixing to die if everybody don't pick
her up. And she just gets happy just
like that. And she'll think, oh, listen,
they're born that way. And one of the first things they
learn to say is no. That's one of the first things
they learn to say is, no. Come here. They go, come here
to me. They run the other direction. No, they're going to get in trouble.
Why they do? They go hide. Why is that? You hear, you're going to get
away. When you get home, what do you do? You wait until daddy goes
to bed before you come in the house. Why is that? Why are they going to hide? Hide
them in the head. It's nature. That's why we pray so desperately
for our children. Man's state and condition by
nature, how he got that way. We contend, earnestly contend,
for the inspiration of the Scriptures. God's Word don't need correcting.
It's given to correct us, not us correct it. It was given to
correct us and instruct us. And we believe that it's God-breathed,
that this is not words about God, it's the very Word of God
itself. And we not only contend for that, but we contend for
the grace of election. We're not going to argue about
whether God elects or not. We're the Scriptures plain about
that. And we're going to continuously contend for the grace of God's
electing grace, that He chose whom He willed, that He chose
people in Christ, that He chose us before the world began, and
how you know you're one of God's elected is He calls you to Himself.
And, oh, we're going to earnestly contend for justification by
the blood and righteousness of Christ. The only way we're justified
before God, the only way we're cleared of all guilt before God,
is through the blood of Christ that washed away our sins, and
the righteousness of Christ. that gives us a perfect standing
before God. We're going to contend for that.
We're going to contend for only one righteousness. And, oh, beloved,
and that's the righteousness that's given to us. We don't
earn it. God gave it to us in Christ. And, oh, beloved, we're
going to contend for the new birth. Except a man be born again,
he can't see or enter into the kingdom of God. We're going to
contend for sanctification where we're set apart by the Spirit
of God, and that God's people will persevere to the very end.
And we're going to contend for the return of our Lord Jesus
Christ. I mean, He said He's coming again. A couple of weeks ago, I preached,
and Terry wrote an awful good hymn about it, you know, where
the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, I'm preaching on, If I will,
that ain't Terry, till I come. And I got on that, till I come,
meaning that Christ says, I will come again. Well, you know He
is coming again. You know, He's going to come
after me. He's going to come after you. And any man, one of these
days, is going to come after all of us at the same time. But
He's coming again. He comes the first time as a
sacrifice for sin. The next time, He's coming. for our planned salvation. Take
us to glory. And, O beloved, we are going
to earnestly contend for the resurrection of the dead. The
dead are going to rise again. Every believer we've took and
put in the ground, their spirit's going to be with Christ. But
every believer that's in that ground right now, some of you
got loved ones in a grave, in a casket, in a vault, and just
as sure as God's on His throne, when Christ comes back, that
body's coming through that casket, coming through that vault, and
leaving that grave! And the spirit's going to join
with it, and they're going to go to glory, just as sure as
God's on His throne. He said, oh, what? They thought
he was a spirit. He said, I'm not a spirit. Touch me. Feel
me. It's me. It's myself. Give me
something to eat. That's what we'll do. We're going
to get to eating glory. And the first meal we're going
to have is Christ going to sit us down and feed us all the very
supper of the Lamb. Can you imagine what kind of
meal He's going to feed us? If He feeds us like He does down
here, you imagine the spiritual food He's going to give us there.
And oh, beloved, in the future glory of God's people, we're
going to contend for it in the eternal condemnation of the lost. Without God, without Christ,
I mean, there ain't but one thing can happen, and that's to be
going to that place where the worm dies not and the fire's
never quenched. And then contend for it. When
He says you earnestly contend for that faith which just wants
to live in it, contend for it. Preach it openly. Preach it boldly. Preach it faithfully. How are
we going to contend for it? Pray for the success of it. You
contend for that. You can contend for it by supporting
it. Whether I preach it, whether
we support other people that preach it. By keeping the building
open, by keeping the bills paid. And we can keep it going and
contend for the faith with our gifts and with our presence.
And, oh, beloved, I tell you, you're talking when you have
folks who want to hear the gospel. And I tell you, we earnestly
contend for it. And just by your very presence, by what you give,
by your prayers, by you being here, you're saying, I'm earnestly
contending for the faith. You say, that don't seem like
much. But that's what you're doing. That's what you're doing.
You're here, you're earnestly contending for the faith. And
you know what you learn here? When you get an opportunity to
say something about it, you say something about it there. Don't
you? Huh? The Lord bless you. Our Father, O gracious, eternal
God, how gloriously blessed is Your name, how gloriously blessed
is Your power, how gloriously blessed is Your grace and Your
mercy. given to us in Christ before
the world ever began. And, Father, we love your gospel.
We love the faith that you've taught us. And, O Lord, we wouldn't
believe anything if you hadn't taught us. We'd still be believing
in our own will, believing in our own power, trusting in our
own righteousness, trusting in our own works, never having any
peace. Conscience would never be satisfied.
We'd be worrisome, fretful. We'd be up here preaching against
sins and things that people do, instead of talking about Christ
and the great remedy for men's fallen nature. Oh God, thank
you for saving us, teaching us, delivering this gospel to us.
Oh, blessed be your name. You brought it to us. Oh God,
you broke in on us. You broke into our darkened minds. You broke into our rebellious
hearts. You subdued our stubborn wheels. And You taught our feet
to follow You. Gave us a hearing ear and a believing
heart, and seeing eyes and hearing ears. Oh God, we know it's You
that did these things. And we bless You for it. Thank
You for it. Blessed be Your holy name. Bless You Lord Jesus for
this great salvation You accomplished. and gave to us, help us to graciously,
earnestly, faithfully, openly, boldly stand for the gospel and
contend for the faith of Christ our Lord. Amen. Amen.