Is there any cause for which you are willing to fight with courage? Is there anything you are wililing to defend with your life? Any person or idealfor which you would be willing to give everything you had?
When I was a child, we used to have neighborhood turf wars. I guess you might say it was 1950s version of suburban gangs. In our group was the forgets, the wendts, the buthmans and the davises. The other group was the one headed by the mcwilliams boys and the reeders.
I remember each winter we would each set up snow forts whenever it would snow in defense of our turf. It was literally more of a cold war of deterrrance than anything else. We would make up hundreds of snowballs, soak them overnight with water so they would freeze hard. We each knew that the others had a stockpile of snowballs equal to or greater than ours and so most of the time there was an uneasy detente.
If either side ventured into enemy territory a giant snowball fight would ensue with each side contending for its own area. That hardly ever happened though (Judy lived inthe same neighborhood and was in the McWilliams district) but she claims that she never was involved.
But we would contend for our ground.
In 1991, president bush said that he had drawn a line in the sand. When iraq invaded kuwait and when saddam's forces crossed that line, a major batttle ensued to contend for that ground.
The book of jude, thouogh one of the smallest in the nt, gives usone of the most interesting and stirring exhortations to the early church to contend for the orthodoxy of the faith and the church.
Our spiritual bodies are as susceptible to disease as our physical bodies. When a person realizes that they have a physical disease, they will seek out medical attention so that the problem can be taken care of; the disease removed or destroyed, the wounds healed and the healthy tissue strengthened.
But in the church, there is an often more subtle form of disease, a different more subversive kind of enemy which sometimes goes on undetected for periods of time.
The book of jude was a diagnosis of the church with a cancer. It is also a trumpet call to battle.
This book was probably written by jude the brother of Jesus , although jude was a fairly common name, he identifies himself as the brother of james and apparently is a jewish author writing from jerusalem. The book has a definite jewish feel to it. It cites a few apocryhal jewish sources. It references old testament characters and angels.
The authors point is not to defend judaism, but the Christ ian church of whom james, the brother of Jesus is a prominent leader.
Lisiten to this challenge and remember that in essence jude is challenging his readers to draw a line in the sand and contend for the faith.
Jude begins the letter with a warm greeting. The niv reads to those who have been called, who arre loved by God the father and kept by Jesus Christ . Mercy peace and love be yours in abundance.
Eugene petersons translation the message reads: "you have been called. God loves you and Jesus is keeping you safe. Relax. Everything is going to be all right . Love is on the way."
This warm greeting is not setting them up for a rebuke but to remind them of who they are in Christ and to urgently warn them of a great danger that has infiltrated the church.
Notice that verse 3 suggests that his true desire was to write to them about all the positve and wondrous blessings of the common salvation that these belieers shared with him. But he had to drop everything to beg them to fight with everything in them for the faith that had been entrusted to them.
It would be so much nicer never to have to deal with controversy. It is always such a blessing to talk about the life we share in Christ 's love. But jude sees danger and controversy. And he needs to urge them to be aware of it and fight for the true faith.
What was the danger.
Apparently God less people had infiltratead the church ranks and had begun subtly promoting their erroneous views. They used just enough God talk to sound as though they really belonged but to an outsider their true nature was evident.
They were known as antinomians. Today they might be known as libertines.
They sound like pretty horrible people don't they? Why would believers have allowed them to have any say in the church? How did they get to any position of leadership.
It all happened very subtly; very slowly and almost imperceptably. They used God words. They talked about grace. They talked about the Lord . They talked about angels. But their talk was heretical. They preached grace wtihout commitment or cost. They preached Christ but not as Lord , only as savior.
And so jude is writing the true believers to exhort them to reclaim the center. To fight for the faith delivered once for all to the saints by the prophets and the apostles.
Judes call to defend the faith is as important today as it was in the late first century. I believe the church is being subverted and the faith watered down today in just the same way.
So, how do you contend for that faith?
There are a great many people today who I call heresy hunters. They play an important role in the church. Like jude they warn us about false teaching and abuses of grace.
That is a fairly negative approach and not one that is particularly practical. An even more important strategy for taking care of the faith given us is to build ourselves up in it.
Before any soldier goes to battle, he must undergo strict training so that he is in top mental, physical and emotional shape. He must be familiar with the weapon that he carries and must be completely committed to the cause for which he fights.
In the same way, you cannot contend for the faith unless you have been through boot camp for basic training. Without that training you could easily be overtaken.
The Lord told joshua as he was poised to enter into the promised land that he should be storng and couorageous for there were going to be many battles to fight in taking that land. But notice! The Lord says be stong and courageous and don't lett this word from my mouth depart from you.
Courage you see has to based on a solid foundation. A person needs to know what this faith is and to built up in thtat faith before they can go out and defend it.
Jude says build yourselves up in this most holy faith. You can't contend agains the forces of falsehood and error unless you are grounded in the truth
And the way you build yourself up in it is this:
Pray in the holy spirit
Moffat says that true religion is dependance. To depend on God is to pray. Today there are a growing number of people who are recognizing their own inability to deal with addictions and destructive behaviour and so they have entered twelve step groups. In the twelve step program the first steps are to recognize your own inability to deal with the problem alone and therefore need to submit your life to a higher power.
There is gretpower in prayer when it is in the holy spirit. Prayerr in the holy spirit is that prayer that does not find its expression in mere human words but in groans and utterances too deep for human expression which the holy spirit utters on our behalf.
Again dependance is on forces outside our own weak and sinful nature and in this case is on the spirit. If you would be strong, become weak in self byut strong in the Lord .
In the same way, immerse yourself in the love of God . Open your arms and your heart to receive blessing and mercy from God .
When you pray, open your arms as a symbol and means of receiving God s grce.
Immerse yourself in the love and mercy of God . Fill your mind with it. Dwell on it. Enjoy it.
I am told that when banks are training tellers to spot counterfeit money, oneof the ways they use is to familiarize the person completely with the real thing. When you know something so well, you can easily sopt a forgery or counterfeit.
Contend for the faith by building yourself up in it
The second way then to contend for the faith is to seek the defeat of the error, not those who are caught up in it.
I like petersons translation of this at this point in the message. Go easy on those who hesitate in the faith. (they are not the enemy).
Go after those who go the wrong way. (they are headed for the fires of hell and damnation. Go after them and snatch them from it.)
Be tender with sinners but not soft on sin.. The sin itself stinks to high heaven. Dr. Dean edell was answerring a question on friday which someone had faxed him about putrid hand disease. It seems this person had gotten a bone sliver from a chicken he was cleaning and it had become infected to such a degree that his entire hand smeeled like rotting flesh.
How does a doctor deal with such a thing. By treating the infection and if it won't clear up by removing the infected part of the body so as to save the persons life.
Jude is calling for antibiotic treatment for the church and if need be, amputation of any part of the spiritual body that is diseased before it spreads to other parts.
There are three very real dangers to the church today. I believe they threaten its orthodoxy and its effectiveness. Christians need to be on the look out for these things and then contend for the truth.
There is a very pronounced interest and preoccupation with angels. But it is not always biblical and often it is out of proportion.
Often people are more interested in angels than in Christ . Angels are created beings and to fix on them above Christ is as dangerous as worshiping nature or any other part of the creation above the creator.
You have no doubt heard of this. Several years ago a number of so called scholars got together to determine which parts of the gospels were authentic and could be attributed directly to Jesus or his disciples. They voted on each passage by puttng a different colored marble out. (real scholarly isn't it?) in essence what they ended up with was an edited nt that contained almost none of the gospels and particularly none of john's gospel which so clearly points to Jesus deity.
What we are left with is a Jesus who neither has authority or power to save or demand our obedience.
The main goal for many is happiness and pleasure. Follow your instincts and desires and it doen't really matter whether those lead you away from biblical standards or sexual purity and holiness. Do what you want to do. It doesn't really matter