Contending for the Faith: Defending the Gospel's Integrity

"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 and Lord, Jesus Christ." [00:00:48]

"And if you had access to the Greek text, I think there are words there that would leap out upon you because they are so frequently seen in the pages of the New Testament letters. He emphasizes the necessity of this, first of all, by a word of encouragement, by an appeal to us. So, as the Apostle Paul appeals to us to be reconciled to God, Jude appeals to us to contend for the faith." [00:02:51]

"The verb he uses is a compound verb from the Greek verb for participating and in the wrestling at the games for struggling to attain an end. And it's a compound verb to underscore the difficulty of this, the necessity and the difficulty of contending for the faith. And what we contend for, he says, is the faith that was delivered to the saints." [00:03:37]

"And there is, I think, no simpler or clearer description of the canon of the New Testament Scriptures than that which Jesus authoritatively organized the apostles to do. Sometimes, said to us that they would be surprised that we are reading the letters they wrote, the Gospels they inscribed. Not a bit of it, they were told by Jesus in the Upper Room within hours of His death that this is what He had called and was equipping them by the Spirit to do." [00:05:30]

"And the point he is making is absolutely essential. You don't notice them. They don't appear at the beginning to be what they may appear to be at the end, but we are responsible to have a sensitivity to the tell-tale signs. And that is what he takes up most of his letter expounding to us; there is a deceitfulness in them." [00:10:38]

"And he is saying, it's characteristic of these people that they pervert the grace of God. Instead of seeing the grace of God, as Paul says to Titus, as teaching us to renounce ungodly lusts, either secretly, and then gradually more and more publicly, their influence will be to allow ungodly lusts. And those ungodly lusts may not be the publicity driving lusts, but the lust of gossip or other similar deviations from gospel styles of life." [00:12:16]

"So, what are the points he makes from verse 5 through to verse 16? Number one, we need to realize the tremendous seriousness of false teaching and every deviation. So, they creep in unawares. We don't notice at first because the deviations seem to be so small. Now, you've probably experienced this, people in the congregation, and there is just something that makes you uneasy, but you may not have the grid to be able to analyze theologically and biblically what it is that's making you feel uneasy." [00:14:46]

"And he weights that by giving us a series of examples, doesn't he, in quickfire succession? In verse 5, the exodus generation. In verse 6, the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority. And then, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and their immorality. And he is projecting us forwards from the small evidences that we may see, for example, that made Lot innocently drift into the cities of the fertile plain." [00:16:04]

"And they end up, says Jude, being destroyed by their own sin. It's a very striking phrase John Knox uses in one of his prayers, where he speaks about God punishing sin with sin. It's our world, isn't it? Our world is given over to what? It sees no sign of the holy wrath and judgment of God upon its sinful ways and boasts that it is true." [00:21:30]

"And you see, Jude is piling these things upon us, as I say, for a very special reason. So, he speaks about the attitudes that they display, he speaks about the effects of their presence in the church. He reminds some of them that the very books they love, that he didn't love, warned them of the judgment to come, his reference to first Enoch." [00:25:38]

"The first in verse 17 is a commitment to a knowledge of the apostolic deposit. The second flows from it; a commitment to a godly lifestyle, building ourselves up in the gospel, growing as people of prayer, immersing ourselves in the affections that are derived from the love of God for us. And because of that, a loving commitment to seek the salvation of those we see who are beginning to wander into these errors with the pastoral sensitivity to do it appropriately." [00:29:06]

"And if you have ever wondered why, perhaps, the greatest doxology in the New Testament is at the end of this letter of Jude, well, you know now, don't you? This is why we need a God who is able to keep us from falling, and who will present us, ourselves, with great joy in His presence. So, however challenging this is, we need to learn to outdo them in our understanding of biblical teaching, to outrun them in our manifestation of godliness and grace, and to outlove them in the mercy that we show to them, lest they race to everlasting destruction." [00:30:39]