Fight for the Faith!
Fight for the Faith!
Jude 1-4
                         
I want to begin with you tonight a verse-by-verse study of the little book of Jude.  It is the next to the last book in the Bible.  It's just one brief chapter --25 verses -- and they are power packed. Look at the first four verses.
 
1-4
 
The Bible teaches that for the believer the great anticipation is the return of our Savior from heaven.  This is the blessed hope of God's children that one day the Lord Jesus will return.  The book of The Revelation sets before us this tremendous truth of our Lord's return, and right before the Revelation is this little book of Jude.
    
Characteristic of the days just before the Lord comes are several things the Bible tells us about. For instant in II Timothy 3:1-5 it says that in the last days perilous times shall come.  The moral atmosphere of those last days will be characterized by immorality and gross sin.
    
Another one of the characteristics given to us is in I Timothy 4:1 where it says, "Now the Spirit (Holy Spirit) speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils."  So, there is a prediction made here that before the Lord Jesus returns there will be a period of time when there will be a departure or a falling away from the faith.
    
 
 
You may recall in II Thessalonians 2, that great chapter of prophecy about the end times, Paul specifically says that the Lord will not return until there be a falling away first.  The word translated, basically translates “depart” and most believe that is a reference to a falling away from the faith.  I personally believe it is a rapture verse telling us there will be, not a departing from the faith, but a departing from the earth. 
 
That is not to say, however, that there will not be a departure from the doctrines of the faith. That is certainly true; in fact, we are seeing it happen right now. 
 
So, apostasy is teaching which falls away from the teaching of Scripture. An apostate is one who teaches these doctrines that deviate from the teachings of Scripture.  You have to keep in mind that an apostate is not a believer.  An apostate is not a saved individual.  It's not a Christian who is just a little confused or off in his interpretation.  But it is someone who denies the basic essential doctrines of the faith.
    
The little book of Jude is a book which gives us some of the details of what apostasy will be like in the end days and describes these apostates for us. 
 
The Apostle Paul warned about the apostasy.  He says in Acts 20 words of warning concerning the end time.  In verse 29-30 he says, "For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.   Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them."
    
 
 
Paul indicated that there would be a two-fold assault on the church in the end times. There would be an assault from the outside -- persecution.  But there would also be an assault from the inside- perverse men of your selves speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.  Paul predicts apostasy and apostates.
    
Listen to the words of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 7:15, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."  So, Jesus predicted apostates -- those who would come appearing to be sheep, appearing to be the Lord's people.  Yet, on the inside, the fact of the matter is, they are very, very different.
    
So, God has given us in the Bible the book of Jude -- a book which specifically addresses the issue of apostasy and apostate teachers.
    
Why do you think the Lord has given this book?  Why do you think God wants us to be aware of this problem?  The Book of Acts is given to us in Scripture to show us the pattern of the faith, to show us what the faith is to be like.  It gives us the principles of how to build a church according to the teachings of the Lord.
    
On the other hand, the book of Jude is given to us to show us the perversion of the faith. To show us how the faith is perverted, how it is twisted, how it is represented.  That's what the book of Jude is all about.
    
We are going to just kind of open the door and take a look at this book which leads us into the Revelation and the return of our Lord.  The first two verses of this little book are verses of-
    
 
I. The Introduction
 
He introduces himself and addresses those to whom he is writing in verse 1 and in verse 2 he gives a word of spiritual greeting. 
 
Look at the one who is writing -- "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James," 
 
This is evidently the half-brother of our Lord Jesus Himself.  He calls himself the servant of Jesus, one who has committed himself in total slavery to the Lord Jesus.  Every believer is to be a servant of Jesus Christ, totally sold out to Jesus Christ.
    
Then he calls himself the brother of James.  This is why we believe it is one of the half-brothers of the Lord.  In Mark 6:3 we are told about the half-brothers of Jesus. Among them is one named Jude. We know that the brothers of Jesus Christ initially were not believers in the Savior. They didn't believe that their half-brother was indeed the Messiah, the Son of God. 
 
Then the resurrection occurred.  In I Corinthians 15:7 we are told about James, the brother of the Lord, and the Lord revealing Himself to him.  Evidently the resurrection of Christ changed his brothers and they came to believe, indeed, that He was the Son of God. 
 
So, on the day of Pentecost in Acts 1, we are told that Mary, His mother and that His brothers were there with the apostles in the upper room.  "Jude, servant of Jesus, brother of James."
    
Notice he does not mention his earthly relationship to Jesus.  He does not mention the fact that he is a brother from an earthly perspective of the Lord. 
The spiritual relationship supersedes the earthly relationship.
    
Another thing I want you to notice is that Jude is a shortened form of the name -- Judas.  What do you think about when you think about Judas?  Immediately you think about Judas and the Apostles who betrayed our Lord. 
 
It is interesting, isn’t it, that we have two men with the same name, one who is an apostate and one who is a devoted follower of Christ used by God to write a book in the Bible warning us of apostasy?
 
Judas, who was the apostate in the disciples of the Lord. 
 
"Jude, the servant of Jesus, and brother of James."
    
Next he talks about those who are going to read the book. That's where you and I come in.  He will give us here a beautiful three-fold statement of who and where we are in Christ:
 
v.1b
 
It is the picture of an invitation to a banquet.  Do you remember the parable Jesus told about the banquet and the people who were invited to the banquet?  The call went out -- come for all things are now ready.  It is God who initiates salvation.  It is God who extends that call.  God calls us.  You came to the Lord because you were called by the Lord.  You may have been sitting in a service like this and the Lord called you and touched your heart and said, "You are lost and you need Jesus, you need to be saved." 
 
Maybe you were in a home and someone came in and shared the Gospel with you and through the presentation of that gospel, you were called. 
 
Now the call of God can be rejected.  Jesus said in that parable that when the invitation was extended people began to make excuses and to give reasons why they couldn't accept the call.
 
So, there is the general call which God sends out by the Gospel.  But when you receive that call, when you say yes to that call, then you become the called. 
 
Next we find the word “sanctified”.  The word, sanctified, means to set apart.  It means that those who are saved are the set apart ones -- the sanctified ones.  It's those who are special unto the Lord.
 
When God saves you , God says about you - He's mine.  She's mine.  That one belongs to me. You have been set apart by the Lord, to the Lord and for the Lord.
 
Then he says that we are "preserved by Jesus Christ."   That word means to be guarded carefully. Something that took place in the past, continues today.  When God saves us he says -- I'm going to take care of you. God makes a commitment to us that when He saves us, He is going to keep us saved.
 
Now there is a keeping which we do and there is a keeping which God does. 
 
Look down at verse 21
 
That's our part of the transaction.  We are to keep ourselves in the love of God.  Stay in fellowship, stay in the constant awareness of God's love. 
But there is also the keeping which God does-- His part.  It is His part to preserve us, to keep us saved.  II Timothy 1:12 says this, "For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." 
 
Someone asks, "do you think that when a person is saved that God will keep them saved eternally?"  Absolutely.  It's not our hold on the Lord that keeps us saved, it's His hold on us.  We are preserved by Jesus Christ until that day.  We belong to the Lord.  We are kept by the power of God unto salvation.
    
Then notice his spiritual greeting verse 2.  He uses three more words: mercy, peace and love be
multiplied  to you (be abundant, be increased). 
 
Watch how this works:  The word mercy looks upward to our relationship with God.
 
Mercy means that God does not give us what we deserve. Mercy describes exactly what God has done for us.  God has not given us what we deserve. I need God's fresh mercy every day.  That's why you and I have the privilege, according to Hebrews 4:16, of coming to "the throne of grace that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."  Mercy looks upward. 
    
Then he says, "Peace".  Peace looks inward to our inward life.  The word, peace, literally means to join together.  It means to put together that which has been separated. That's one of the things Jesus did when He died on the cross.  Jesus made peace between us and the heavenly Father.  He has put us back together.  That's a wonderful thing that Jesus does in the life of an individual.
When you come to Christ He begins to put things back together in your heart – your inward life. There's a deep inward peace that is available to the child of God.  God promises that peace.  When you need His peace, it is there. 
 
The word love looks outward to our relationships with others.  What a beautiful greeting this is in the introduction. 
 
Now, in verse 3 we see -
                     
 
II. The Explanation
 
Jude explains why this particular book is written.  What took place to bring this book to creation?  He says in verse 3 that he started off in one direction and then wound up going in another
 
verse 3
 
What a great subject!  Jude was like most preachers.  He enjoyed preaching and talking about the most pleasant subjects.  That's what I like to do.  I like to talk about the cross, and God's love and I like to think about what God has done for us in Jesus. 
 
The common salvation.  If you and I have received Christ, we share together this common salvation.  We all have a common problem and we must find the common provision. 
 
Jude says that's what he started to write about. But as he dipped his pen in the ink to write he says, "I found it necessary…”
 
The word, necessary, means a sense of inner compulsion. An inner compulsion grew within him. 
God's Holy Spirit began to move him in another direction. 
 
What did he srite about instead? 
 
Verse 3b
 
All of a sudden Jude puts down the harp and picks up the sword.  He says, "I felt an inner compulsion to write you and to encourage, to exhort, you to earnestly contend for the faith."
 
When I got to that verse is when I understood why God directed me to this book immediately after our study of the spiritual armor.  He gives a war cry here.  He says, "I have written this book to challenge you to fight for the faith."
 
" contend earnestly " -- it's an intensive verb. It's a verb with a preposition in front of it that makes it more intense. He's talking about a spiritual warfare-- a fight that's going on. 
 
What do you want us to fight for, Jude?  He says, "For the faith." Not faith, but THE faith.  He's talking about a body of truth. He's talking about a system of doctrine.  He's talking about some fundamentals of Christianity. 
 
In Acts 2 we are told that the early church continued in the Apostles' doctrine. That's what he's talking about here. He says,"the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints."  It's something that has been handed over. Since the early church days, faithful teachers have handed over the faith. They have passed on the faith.
What is the faith?  It's the basic doctrines, the basic truths of the faith. There are some truths that are absolutely essential to the Christian faith and if you take away any of them, then you don't have the Christian faith. 
 
For instance, the truth of the virgin birth of Jesus.  If you eliminate this truth of the virgin birth of Jesus and Christianity collapses. There is no Christian faith.
    
Here's another one of the fundamentals.  The atoning, substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross for our sins.  One of the basic doctrines of the faith is that Christ died for our sins on the cross. Take that away and you don't have Christianity. 
 
Another one is the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the grave.  You take that away, you deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ and you don't have Christianity any more. 
 
Another one is the absolute, inspiration and authority and inerrancy of the Scriptures.  If you just take away the truth that the Bible is God's inerrant word, you don't have Christianity anymore. 
 
Another one is the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.  You take that away and you don't have Christianity. 
 
So Jude says, Earnestly contend for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints.
    
He is saying that what we have in our Bible is the full and the final revelation of God's spiritual truth. There won't be any more Bible written.  There is no need for latter day revelations.  There is no additional truth.
 
He is saying that the canon of Scripture is closed.  You can't add to it; don't take away from it. Apostasy either tries to add to your Bible, or take away from your Bible.  There is no new revelation going on today. There are no apostles today.  There are no prophets speaking literal Scripture today.
 
God says to earnestly contend for the faith that was once for all delivered unto the saints.
    
This book is worth fighting for.  You better fight for it.  You might think it will always be around.  Not necessarily.  Go to England and witness the spiritual dearth over there.  Right here in our own America, go to New England.  There was a time when the faith flourished in that area, and when revival spread like a fire over that area. You will find today there is a spiritual dearth in many places because they didn't contend for the faith.
    
The introduction -- verses 1-2.  The explanation - why he wrote verse 3.
 
III. The Situation
    
verse 4
 
Here we see the apostates.  They slip in the side door.  They worm their way in.  The picture was used of a criminal who had been exiled from a land and secretly slips back into the country. It's the picture of an allegator on the banks of a stream, silently, subtly slithering into the water to do its damage.  He's talking about how the apostates operate.  How they get in. They come slipping in.  They come in under false pretenses.
 
They pretend one thing, but in actuality they are something else.  They talk about the same things you do. In fact, they may even use the same words you do. 
They use our vocabulary, but not our dictionary.  They use the same words we use, but they don't mean what we mean by it.
    
He says earnestly contend because there are men who have crept in unawares and they turn the grace of our God into lewdness.  That means there will be a moral departure.  It just means unashamed lust.  People who don't care who sees what they do. 
 
He says the apostates will use the grace of God as an excuse to sin.  They say "because we are under God's grace, we can live as we please and it won't matter."  The grace of God is not an excuse to sin, the grace of God is a call to holy living. 
 
Then notice the next phrase:  “they deny. . .”
 
That means there will be a doctrinal departure --
    
Let me give you four things we ought to do to contend for the faith.
        1) Study the faith.  Know what the Bible teaches.
2) Show the faith by the way you live.  Let people see the faith in your life.
        3) Share the faith. Tell others about Christ.
        4) Stand for the faith.
    
Ladies and gentlemen:  It’s worth fighting for.