Sermon: Truth Worth Fighting For

Let's pray before we open the word together this morning.

Our father, we are thankful for this eternal word. We're thankful that we have a strong foundation on which to stand, thankful that we have a clear voice to listen to. We're thankful for the men and women and children that have passed this on to our generation, some giving their very lives. We pray that we would not treat it tritely this morning, that we would hear your voice, that we would know that it is the voice of life this morning

and that it would resonate in our hearts and our minds, and our spirits to your glory and to your pray, pray all of this in the strong name of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen. Jude verses three and four this morning. This is the holy and errand sufficient word of God. 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 the Lord Jesus Christ. But the grass withers and the flower fades, the word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Favorite city in the world is the city of Edinburgh. I've been there three times. Uh, I love it. It is, uh, a clean city. It's a beautiful city. There are all kinds of new buildings that are glorious, but I love those is it's kind of a city where the old meets the new and there are all of these wonderful old buildings. I love it though, especially, uh, because of the rich Scottish Presbyterian history that is in that city. Uh, you,

you almost can't walk a block without coming to a corner and there is a large stone edifice and this giant church, it just seems fixed there and, and it's, it's spire reaches up and it just kind of pierces the, the sky above And you can't help but when you stand before one of these great stone edifices, you, your eyes are just drawn up. You just have to look up. But it's not just when you're outside, when you go inside one of those churches and you walk in, you,

you can't help but your, your eyes are lifted up.

They were built not like the modern boxes of today that would disappear in our generation. They, they were built to last to be permanent and they were grand so that when you were in them and when you stood before them, you felt very little that you would remember that God is very great.

I, uh, can walk in a number of those churches in Edinburgh and tell you the history of different pastors that served there and different congregations that build those buildings and different missionaries that were sent out, different awakenings that that happened in those buildings. And when I'm walking to Edinburgh, I, I am, I'm filled with delight thinking about all of those things. Incredibly encouraging to me. It's equally discouraging though

because most of those churches are no longer churches. They're community centers or art venues or their historic halls or they're just boarded up

and it didn't just happen. They were laws. They were laws. Jude in the book of Jude, this is what he is concerned about. The church getting lost, being lost. This entire letter finds all of what it's about here in verses three and four. He gives us a purpose of the letter in verse three, he wants them to quote contend for the faith and the cause for the letter is verse four. He is writing because ungodly false teachers have crept into the

church. He doesn't want these churches laws. What I wanna do is look at verse four together first and then we'll jump back up to verse three. So what I wanna do is look at verse four together first and this cause for this letter. The cause is ungodly teachers have come into the church, these certain people, Jude says, and one commentator alluded, he said, said, ah, with that kind of language you can almost feel his palpable kind of

disregard for these teachers, certain people who have crept in unnoticed and teaching of false gospel, they, they've come in unnoticed.

If you think about church history and you look back over previous generations, you even look at the church in our own day, the church is pretty regularly on guard against what's going out going on in the world. Alarm bells start going off and on guard, but often what happens is is that from within like a Trojan horse, unnoticed false teaching begins to weave its way through a congregation, through a denomination, even through a country.

And the church's laws,

this is Jude's concern. He's watching it happen. He's watching it happen in the first century church people, he says, who were long ago designated for condemnation were teaching false things and we'll get to that when we get to verses five through 10, what he means by long ago designated for commendation, uh, for a condemnation. But notice what I want you to notice is what they were doing, what they were actually teaching. Two things.

Jude says they were perverting the grace of our God into sensuality and second, they were denying Jesus Christ as master and Lord. So first they were perverting the grace of our God into sensuality. That is they were living as if there was no moral code for the Christian life, they were against the law, what we call in theology, antinomians. They were anti namas, anti against namas. The law. They were against the law.

They thought because the gospel messages that you and I can be saved by grace, salvation is by grace alone. That that meant that once you received that grace alone, you could live any way you wanted to. In this case, they wanted a perverted sensual life and by this Judas saying they were denying the faith, we're denying the faith. Listen, part of our faith is living to the praise and glory of Christ. Paul talks about this in Romans one.

He talks about it the about the obedience of faith. Whereas the apostle says, without holiness, no one will see the Lord Our truth. Gospel truth is not simply justification, it is also tied together with sanctification. Judas telling them this is false teaching of the deadliest kind. If you are saved in Jesus, you are saved to live for Jesus. Freedom in Christ is not licensed to sin. We don't sin that Grace May abound

and it never be. Paul said if, if that's our understanding of grace, then we have a misunderstanding of grace. He Bought us at this precious blood. We've been united to him. We are a temple of the spirit. We are a child of the heavenly Father. And so now because of all that, ah, we want to become more like the Savior who bought us. We want to give him glory and praise with who we are.

Not beyond this.

I can just for a moment, uh, press a little bit tell you a personal pastoral concern along these lines that I have in our own circles and just watching our reformed world over these, I don't know, last decade or so, it seems to me that there is, there's within our own midst some of this where I'm particular see it with people cursing and drinking to excess and laughing about it, The Freedom in Christ, not the sin. No one wholesome thing is to come out of our mouths

and drink but not to excess. Be in control of your body by the spirit.

These false teachers, they were teaching a gospel by their words of false gospel, by their words and their living. They were against the law antinomians, but they weren't only antinomians, they were independence. They were not only against the law but against being ruled. Jude says, second, they deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ, they like the idea of Jesus being their savior but not their master. And this is incredibly instructive. Listen,

false teachers always, always, always claim Christ. There is no false teacher who says, listen to me as I talk to you about Christ, though I don't belong to Christ. Christ isn't mine. Every single one represents themselves as belonging to Christ and every heretic. That's true in all of church history. But he wasn't their master.

As Jude says, he is our only master in Lord Jesus Christ.

Some want that weight relieved and we all want that. You feel the weight of the, the guilt of your sin and the burden of that sin. And so some of those most beautiful words I think in all of the scriptures or the Lord Jesus says in Matthew 11, we rightfully treasure One of my favorite verses, come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest And, And when we run to him, we we receive that rest.

He removes that burden. He forgives you your sin, he cleanses you from all and righteousness and I desperately need that,

but we don't stop there. The Christian life only starts there. The Rest of that verse come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Here's the second part. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. I'm gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. We Take his yoke upon us, says, he says in another pastor says, if you would be a decide mind, you must deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow me.

We follow him. We yield to him as master and Lord we take his yoke upon us. We pick up our cross and we follow. This was the cause, false teaching. Now let's look at the purpose of the letter. Jude says back to verse three, he says, contend for the faith That is, it's not simply enough for you and I to have faith. It's incumbent Jude says to contend for the faith. Now when we speak of faith, what often goes through our mind,

rightfully so is Hebrews 11, that great chapter on faith where the writer walks through all of these examples of faith, that hall of fame of faith, and we have that first verse come to our minds, faith is assurance of things, hope for the belief and things not seen that exercising of faith, that having faith, but that's not what Jude's talking about here. Jude's not talking about the exercising of faith, he's speaking about the faith.

There's an article there, the faith, our belief, The fixed core to our faith. This is the very thing that we are to contend for the faith. What does that mean to contend for it? That word contend. Greek word sounds very similar. The root word sounds very similar to the English word agonize and it has that kind of sense to it that you're striving, that you're struggling earnestly, that you're fighting for contend for the faith.

Jude says this faith was being lost in their midst because false teachers were subtracting from the faith, this good deposit that they had received from previous generations. Even as we confess from Psalm 78 this morning, it's passed on from generation to generation, Lord willing, this good deposit they've received and they were losing it,

losing it. And so he's saying fight for it, contend for it.

It's often lost, always lost in a generation because there is some adding or some subtracting from it

tend for the faith. Jude says, If we think about those who would subtract, we might think about Paul writing in one Corinthians where he gives this great distillation in one Corinthians 15 of the core of our gospel message and he says that there are false teachers that are teaching something different. What is it they're denying the resurrection, they're subtracting or you think of addition when he writes in the book of

Galatians and he writes about those judaizers who are coming along and they're talking about the gospel and the need add circumcision to the gospel message they're adding. Or if you think historically with me there is subtracting that happens in almost every generation of the church where there is a denial of the sufficiency of scripture or there is a denial of the penal substitutionary atonement of Christ or there is a denial of biblical sexual ethics

or you think of addition historically and the need to walk an aisle to receive the Lord Jesus or baptismal regeneration or praying to the saints. There's always this danger of adding or subtracting now. Now here's what you and I have to realize. This doesn't happen in a vacuum. It's not as if somebody is sitting one day in a church and thinks, you know what? Sure would be fun to add something here. You know what? Let's subtract something here. That's not what happens

almost without fail. It is an attempt to make the Christian faith more palatable in the current cultural context.

It's often driven by, we want to be better evangelists,

we want to be better holders onto the faith.

Take away that which is offensive or add to that which would allure the culture around. This is often the motivation of liberalism. But there is the other end of the spectrum though too adding or taking away because we think that church needs it to withstand the culture. Just add a little here, add a little there. And that's often the motivation of legalistic fundamentalism. We need this to be a bulwark.

It doesn't matter the motivation, Whether You're trying to appease to the culture outside or whether you're trying to be stout against the culture outside. It doesn't matter your motivation. You mess with the gospel

you've messed with. The only thing that is life

do not add. Do not take away Judas clear. This faith was delivered once for All. There is a finality here. Nothing more to add. Nothing to change it's done. To think differently is to think that you are wiser than God

and this shouldn't need to be said, but it has to be said because it happens in every single generation. Do not listen to those who think they are wiser than God.

This gospel, this Christian faith, it worked in the first century.

You often hear, well how are we gonna reach this generation? We we need to soften the edge here, but we need to bolster it up from underneath to reach this generation. Listen, it worked in the first century. It worked in the third century. It worked in the seventh century. It worked in the 12th century. It worked in the 19th century, the 20th century and it's works in the 21st century because it's his.

He's gifted it to us.

It's glorious message. It doesn't need adapting. You contend for it.

When we worship here in spirit and truth, we're contending for it. You realize you're in the midst of a fight, our adversary, until our Lord Jesus returns upon the clouds and takes us home. Until he does that, our adversary is going to continue, continue to try to get you and I to add or subtract from the gospel because he knows that his life And he's opposed to your life and he is opposed to you and I passing this on to

the generation after he's is fighting. And here's the key, you are fighting too. The question is just whether you're engaged rightly. You are in this fight.

When we worship here in spirit and in truth, we rightfully are engaged in contending when we teach our children our holy faith without compromise, we are rightfully contending When you are praying for those who preach and teach. You are rightfully contending when you are growing in your knowledge and understanding. Through bible studies and doctrine studies and prayer groups and personal reading and study, you are rightfully contending when you're willing to push back on false

teaching. You're rightfully continuing. When you support faithful ministries, you're rightfully contending when you support the vision that we talk about here of events in the mission of Christ by planting good, faithful biblical churches that by God's grace would last for generations and training up pastors and missionaries and college workers. You are rightfully contending when you refuse to listen to untrue voices. No matter how clear they are,

no matter how loud they are, no matter how comforting they are when you refuse to listen to them, you are rightfully contending to contend for the truth. For thee faith,

we need fighters. Christians who contend

we need to be a church that contends or we won't last.

It says what's happening there in Psalm 78 A is saying, we won't hide these things from our children. We we will pass it on to the next generation. The mighty works that the Lord has done, that they might set their hope in the world. Have it.

Don't lose it. And it takes us doing this together and it takes each of us engaging in it individually intending for the faith

closing. Let me answer a couple of objections that come to mind when we think about contending for the faith and then give a handful of quick warnings, couple of objections. The first objection that comes to mind is that contending so's disunity, don't the scriptures talk about the need to be unified but the church to be one Absolutely over and over and over. It is one of the heartbeats of the New Testament. Our Lord Jesus's longest recorded prayer is all about you and I being

one with one another even as the father and the son are one. It is to be in the forefront of our minds and in the forefront of our hearts and our interactions with one another that we are seeking in every way to be in unity with one another. It is no small thing, but that's not the reason to not contend, But rather it is the reason to contend.

Look At what's happening here. These false teachers, they've snuck in and they've taught something that is untrue and that untruth is causing a disruption in the peace of the church. They brought the disunity and now they must be contended with so the unity is regained and so that it remained.

Remember having this conversation with people here at U R C years and years ago when we were uh, talking about leaving former denomination that this church belonged to and I remember a handful of individuals corner to me one Sunday and saying, Jason, you all are causing division,

causing division speaking about these things. Jesus is all about unity. He is absolutely is. But unity rooted in truth.

We weren't causing the division. Those who were teaching new things about human sexuality and about officers in the church and about the mission of the church caused the disunity by moving from the faith. Contending was an attempt to maintain the unity not just with the churches that we are currently in a cultural context with that is important, but it is beyond that you and I are to maintain unity with churches through the generations. You sang about that this morning.

The church triumphant all the saints that have come before us and believed this truth. There is one church and we're to be united with them

so we cannot give it up, we cannot soften it, we cannot change it. We cannot add to it. We cannot subtract from it. We contend for it. Second objection, intending doesn't sound loving. Aren't we supposed to be loving as Christians, lovers not fighters?

Yes, the love. And if you love you contend And we, When we lose this truth, we lose what grants life.

When we lose this truth, we dust in others to dwell in darkness. It is the height of being unloving to be unconcerned about that which has eternal consequence. That's unloving

in our day and age. There's continual more and more pressure and there's going to be and you're going to feel it. You're gonna feel it in the workplace. Your children are gonna feel it in school, gonna feel it in every way to embrace sin and to call what is evil good and what is good evil.

And there's gonna be a call within the church to soften the view on this. Faith must change or people in our culture won't accept Christ.

It's unloving to embrace or simply smile while others embrace eternal destruction. I can't think of anything more unloving than affirming sin when we have the answer.

Bryce, if I was this morning to say to each of you underneath where you're seated right now, there is a paper bag and in that paper bag is the cure for cancer.

Every single one of you would start having people going through your minds, family, friends, coworkers, neighbors That are struggling with cancer and you would immediately think of them and what's in that bag. And you wouldn't sit here and open up that bag and go, you know what? I'm gonna adjust this a little bit. If it's a cure for cancer, you would run out of here and you wouldn't begin to contemplate and begin to rationalize and say, ah,

they seem pretty content in their cancer. They seem pretty happy. You wouldn't say, well, you know, they, they seem comfortable. They've identified as a person with cancer and I don't wanna upset 'em.

You wouldn't do that Because You know cancer is seeking to kill them.

That's Just mortal sin is seeking To kill And it takes no prisoners.

We have the answer,

son of God who came into the world for sinners and lived a holy, perfect life and died an atoning death and was buried and raised on the third day and ascended to the right hand of God the father who reigns even now and is going to return upon the clouds and bring us home. You have the answer

on loving, subtract from it or add to it.

Go. Of course. Great love chapter should come to mind. Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices with truth should not be rude, should not be unkind, it should not be arrogant. But if I'm more concerned about giving offense than I am about the eternal destination of a soul that I'm not loving, never be ashamed, as we said last week, of calling yourself a Christian equally, never be ashamed of owning the entire Christian faith

To life life.

Now having said that, let me give you four quick warnings to close this morning. I'll start with a C, contend without being contentious, contend without being contentious. We are not the love fighting. We are not always to be looking for a fight. A critical spirit is not a godly spirit. Notice Jude did not want to write as he wrote to them. He wanted to write about, he says quote, our common salvation. It was only because of the disruption that he felt compelled

to enter the fray. In this letter, he is not contentious for the faith, he is contending for the faith. It is godly. It is godly. Hear me, it is godly. To be a reluctant fighter, we only contend because we have to. We are as the apostle said, we are to remain at peace with all men as we are able.

Being contentious is not being faithful. The critic is not faithful. Contending reluctantly but with no less resolved is being faithful. Second, contend without being conceited, tend without being conceited. Pride has no place in the Christian.

You and I only know what we know by his grace. You and I only hold on to what we hold on to by his grace

To never be looking down upon others. None of us are the savior of the world. Christ chooses to use us, but he does not need us. Do you contend without being conceited? Third contend without being callous.

Some contend because frankly they're just an angry person.

Seldom do they see it. And usually these people admire strength. They admire outspokenness, they admire fight, but they tend to skip over equally important Christian virtues, meekness and gentleness as we'll discuss tonight. Those are equally important.

And if you are not marked by those, this makes for callous interactions with others. We contend for truth because we love people. He said, love your enemies. We never contend without tears. When the Lord Jesus is looking out over the city of Jerusalem, he says, look, you are the city that kills the prophets. He knows it's a city that is going to murder him. Crucify him. And then what does he do? He weeps over it. He loves people

and he wants people to have this truth.

We're not calloused toward them in our contending. We want others to know. As we looked at last week, the joy and comfort and hope of being called and loved and kept by such a gloriously good and beautiful savior, Finally contend without being cynical, tend without being cynical. There's some of us that are half glass full people. Some of us are half glass empty people. Some of us are what glass people. Uh, it feels like everything is going to be horrible all the time.

And everybody's motives in the church are wrong except of course mine.

There's no place for cynicism in the church.

This is not what Jude had in mind. Were to consider others better than ourselves. Paul says. And even when we see air, we as contenders are to be gracious and joyful and hopeful and expectant that the Lord Jesus who is Lord and master will work. He reigns. There is nothing and there is no one that is beyond his redeeming. I was just talking to someone after the service. I was just in Edinburgh last week and he was talking about how, oh,

how devastated he was seeing all these churches and I would say, ah, but brother, we pray for them. The Lord can turn that entire city into a beacon of light again. He said it would take quite a work. I said it would. And he can do it like that. Like that. We're not cynics.

When I'm in Edinburgh, I often think of these once faithful gathering places with faithful congregations that are no longer, and it's a good reminder. It's a good reminder that past faithfulness is not guarantee of future faithfulness. It's a good reminder that filled pews today does not mean that we will be present here tomorrow. It's a good reminder that beautiful and grand buildings are not the church.

What was lost there can be lost here. The Presbyterian church in America is not beyond this university. Reformed church is not beyond this. Your family is not beyond this. So we contend with love. We contend for the faith. So rise with church and we put our arm on, we arise. Let's pray.

Father, we are thankful for men and women and children, many of them having given their lives. We might even sit and stand here this morning being recipients of such a glorious gospel. We thank you for the faith that was once delivered to the saints. May we be preservers of it and our generation lovers of it and our generation, we might affect the world around us, that we might live more to the glory of our savior and that we might pass it on

to the generation to follow. Pray all of this in the strong name of Christ Jesus. Amen.