Faithful Contention
Notes
Transcript
Jude 3-4 ESV
3 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. 4 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 and Lord, Jesus Christ.
A lesson that I have vividly and repeatedly learned throughout my pilgrimage here on earth is that I am not in control of anything. I quickly learned the meaning of what James was saying in his epistle when he said that rather than us saying that we will do this and then we will do that, we should instead say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
Now, like a lot of people, we will hear something like that and kind of take it for granted. Indeed, a lot of times we will say it just to say it, you know, we may say, “Lord willing, I will see you tomorrow.” and still think that ultimately, we are the ones in control of our destinies.
But to truly believe that, especially after experiencing it for yourself in your own life, you come to acknowledge, appreciate, and indeed live by these words. These words which humbly remind us that this is God’s world, and we are at His mercy.
I remember a situation that my pastor relayed to me as I was training for ministry wherein he was reminded once again that he will do what he wills to do only if God is willing.
One of the many things that he taught me was to have many sermons in my back pocket, to try to have at least one month’s worth of sermons that have been written and are ready to be preached so that if other parts of ministry demand my attention and I don’t have time to write a sermon for that Sunday, it will already be taken care of.
And the reason why he recommended that to me was because he practiced that himself.
In fact, he told me that back in early September 2001 he had just finished writing a series of sermons that would encompass the remainder of the year. And he said that on the morning of September 11, 2001 he was putting the finishing touches on his series of sermons when he heard on the radio that the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City had been attacked by terrorists, killing thousands.
He said that as he heard the news, he leaned back in his chair, bewildered at what he had just heard. And he said that a few minutes later, one of his parishioners called him, wanting to talk about what had happened. Then as soon as he got off the phone with that parishioner, another one called him, and then another one.
And as the calls came flooding in, he thought about how he could possibly comfort his flock when they gathered that coming Sunday. And as he thought about that, he then thought about the series of sermons that he had just labored so hard to finish and he knew that what he had prepared to write was not going to go over well in light of what had happened that morning.
And so, he told me that he never preached that series, because he knew that at that moment, God had made it clear to him that there was something else that the people needed to hear.
Every time that I think of the Epistle of Jude, I think of this. I think of setting aside what we want and desire and feel is important at that moment, because God has revealed to us a much more pressing matter that needs to be tended to now.
And the reason why I think of this is because of the content of the verses that we will be expositing today. For as we will shortly see, though Jude’s intent was to write on a certain subject, God had other plans for this inspired epistle.
We see this as we start off our reading for today by looking at the beginning of verse 3, which reads:
Jude 3a ESV
3a Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary
Now, we are going to stop right there and discuss what is said here.
If you remember what we spoke of in our sermon from last week, then you will remember that this epistle that Jude writes, he writes to a group of people who have been called, who are beloved in God the Father, and are kept for Jesus Christ.
And we see again in our reading for today that Jude addresses those to whom he writes here as “beloved”. This means that these who Jude writes too are among those who are beloved in God the Father and are thus saved.
Because this is the case, Jude tells his recipients that it was his original intent and purpose to write to them concerning the salvation that both he and they share together, seeing that both he and they are saved people.
But though that was the case, Jude says that he found it necessaryto write something else. In other words, though Jude desired to write concerning one thing, the circumstances which presented themselves compelled him to write about something else.
Thus, while he earnestly desired to write about the salvation that he and they shared, God sovereignly redirected him and caused him to write about something else.
And that which God had Jude find necessary, we see at the end of this verse was that he,
Jude 3b ESV
3b write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
This is what we see God compelling Jude, redirecting him to write. What he writes, what God has commanded Jude to communicate to this people was an “appeal”.
Now, to say that one “appeals” signifies that that one is communicating a strong urging. It is not a passive, “Well, here’s what I think”, it is not what we would call helpful advice or a suggestion, but rather, what Jude communicates here is a word from God meant to compelthe recipients of this epistle to a specific course of action.
And that course of action, Jude says, is that these recipients of his epistle, “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints”.
Now, we get this verb “contend” from the sphere of competition, particularly athletic competition. We are in the midst of the football season right now, and if a team legitimately thinks that they are the best team in the league, they will contend, they will compete hard to go on to win the Super Bowl, because a team winning the Super Bowl proves to everyone that they are indeed the best team in the league.
And in the same way, Jude appeals for his recipients to contend, to defend, to fight for the faith that they hold to. To contend for the orthodox faith, the faith, that Jude says “was once for all delivered to the saints”.
In this statement we see the completeness, the finality, the absoluteness of the orthodox faith. This faith, the contents of our faith; saved by the grace of God alone, justified through faith in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.
From start to finish, salvation is of the Lord. Paul says, “those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”
Foreknew, predestined, called, justified, glorified. That is the entire soteriological schema of the orthodox faith, God chooses to save His elect before the foundation of the world, therefore He predestines them to salvation, then in the fullness of time, God calls them to salvation, after calling them, God justifies them by applying the blood of Christ to their account, and then God remains with them, keeping their salvation secure, eventually bringing them to Him and finally glorifying them.
This has ever been the system of our faith, from the very beginning when God graciously formed the first man and woman and to the end of the age and indeed, for all eternity.
And this faith, culminating in the decisive revelation of the gospel in and through Jesus Christ, has been authoritatively passed down to the Lord’s apostles, and the authoritative revelation of the faith has ended with the apostles. Thus, the revelation has been sealed and therefore the canon of scripture has been sealed.
There is no more to be added to our faith, thus, as Jude says here, it has been delivered once for all to the saints.
Now, as we look at verse 4, we see the reason as to why Jude makes this particular appeal. And because this verse is so important, I want to break it down into five different sections. Small sections, but five different sections.
Thus, we see first of all why Jude makes this appeal to contend for the faith in the first section of verse 4, when he says:
Jude 4a ESV
4a For certain people have crept in unnoticed
This is the chief reason why Jude makes this appeal. He says that he appeals to them that they may contend for the orthodox faith, “for” or, because of “certain people”. These “certain people” who Jude refers to are false teachers, those who promote something other than the orthodox gospel.
And Jude says that these false teachers have “crept in” that is, have infiltrated orthodox circles and congregations and churches where the orthodox gospel is typically preached and believed on.
And these have done this, Jude says, “unnoticed”. This means that these have crept into orthodox circles, subtly, not outlandishly, but subtly teaching and promoting that which is not orthodox and doing so unnoticed because they come under a guise of piety.
Beloved, believe not every word that an exemplary moral man speaks, believe not every word that one who appears wise and pious speaks, but test the spirits with the Word of God and from that standard make your judgment.
A failure to do so results in believing every nice sounding fallacy that comes your way. For this reason, there are scores of churches and denominations that hold to heretical systems and more times than not aren’t even aware of it. They believe what they believe, not because the Word of God says so, but because their silver-tongued preacher says so.
These false teachers, Jude says in the next part of this verse are those:
Jude 4b ESV
4b who long ago were designated for this condemnation
These come with a guise of authority and godliness and indeed it seems as though this is the case, almost as if they had been sent from God Himself, when the reality, Jude says is that “long ago” that is, from the foundation of the world, before they were even born, they “were designated for condemnation”.
Going back to sports, in baseball there is someone in the lineup who is called the “Designated Hitter”. He doesn’t play defense, he is only there to hit, and because that is the case, he is then “designated” to hit. That is his assignment.
Well, these false teachers, Jude says, were designated by God before the foundation of the world to be condemned to everlasting punishment.
In other words, before the foundation of the world, in light of the sinfulness and corruption of these false teachers, God saw fit to condemn them to this everlasting punishment.
In other words, Jude says that these men creep in unnoticed, they seem like wonderfully godly teachers, and they have great personalities and they seem to be safe guides for the church, when in reality, the only place that they are heading is the place that they have been designated to go, and that is into eternal condemnation.
Indeed, Jude goes further in this verse to say that these false teachers are:
Jude 4c ESV
4c ungodly people,
To be ungodly doesn’t just mean to commit sinful acts, but indeed, it means to be in a state of opposition to God. Thus, these are opposed to God. Certainly not men for believers to follow!
And these prove that they are opposed to God, Jude says in the next part of this verse, because they are those:
Jude 4d ESV
4d who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality
What this means is that these ungodly teachers alter the grace of God, change the meaning and purpose of it by presenting it in such a way as to encourage their hearers to lack self-constraint and to openly indulge in whatsoever sin their hearts desire.
In the book of Romans, Paul asks, “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” and he emphatically answers that question by saying, “By no means!”. But that is what these false teachers were encouraging. They said, “You are saved by grace and will thus be kept saved by grace. Therefore, do whatever your heart desires because you will remain saved no matter what!”.
This is the farthest thing from the truth, for Paul tells us in Ephesians that the believer is re-created in Christ Jesus for good works. We shall not willingly continue in sin after having been saved from it, and indeed, anyone who does, having no care for the fact that he is grieving the Holy Spirit is likely not saved.
And lastly, Jude says that these false teachers promoting such a blasphemous system, perverting the grace of God into a license to sin most certainly,
Jude 4e ESV
4e deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
As a result of their perversion of the orthodox gospel, these false teachers effectively deny the identity and authority of Christ Jesus.
He is identified here as our Master and Lord to stress His complete authority, and to reveal the unflinching submission that He deserves and commands from those who claim Him as their Savior.
And indeed, He is identified as our “only” Master and Lord to further remind us that we cannot serve two masters, that God is a jealous God Who will not share His glory with another, that we cannot serve God and the flesh, but that God justly demands that we serve Him and Him alone!
Beloved, as we finish our sermon this morning, we need to be reminded that this God-denying theology is incredibly prevalent, still to this day. It has crept into orthodox circles and has caused many who had before been considered orthodox believers to effectively deny the Lord Jesus as their only Master and Lord just as those who promote such unbiblical theology.
Indeed, I sadly believe that I can confidently say that in circles that are labeled Christian circles, there are more who hold to a God-denying faith than the truly orthodox faith.
But beloved, contend for the orthodox faith. Contend to the point that we at this church can say that this church is truly a spiritual oasis in a desert land. That though the places of worship that surround us may stink of works-based, worthless theology, that at this church the orthodox faith may be found.
Contend for that faith!
Amen?
