Contend for the True Faith

Jude 1:3-4 ESV

 

“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.”

 

As followers of Jesus Christ, we need to be those who are contending today for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. We need to be contending for the gospel of Jesus Christ as Jesus taught it, and as his NT apostles taught it (in the whole context of what they taught on our salvation). For, the gospel and our faith in Jesus are under attack big time!

 

For certain people have crept into the gatherings of the church today, largely unnoticed for who they really are and for what they are about. They are charlatans, manipulators, deceivers, actors, salespeople, charmers, users, abusers, hypocrites, and wolves in sheep’s clothing who are out to destroy the gospel of our salvation and the true church of Christ, his body.

 

They have slipped into the gatherings of the church under the pretense of being the Lord’s true sheep, and under the pretense of being ministers of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. But they have turned the gatherings of the church into a marketplace to attract the world, and they have adulterated the gospel of Jesus Christ to make it more palatable to human flesh.

 

So the church, at least in America, for the most part, is not being the light of the world and the salt of the earth, and they are not making disciples of Jesus Christ of people of all nations, and they are not proclaiming the excellencies of him who called them out of darkness into His wonderful light, because they have bought into the market-driven church with its gospel.

 

For these charlatans have convinced them that the way to grow their churches is to use man-made marketing tricks and schemes and plans in place of God’s plan for how to build his church. And they have convinced them to alter the gospel to make it more acceptable to the flesh and to the world in order to win the world to their “church” gatherings.

 

And so they have perverted the grace of our God into sensuality, and they deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. For they teach that we can “believe” (no definition) in Jesus, be forgiven our sins, be on our way to heaven, but we don’t have to turn from our sins (repent), and we don’t have to walk in obedience to our Lord’s commands (New Covenant).

 

So, they are leaving people still addicted to (enslaved to) sin while promising them forgiveness of sins and eternal life with God. And so their adherents are convinced that since Jesus forgave their sins that they are now free to sin as much as they want without guilt and without punishment for they are assured that heaven is their eternal destiny no matter what.

 

Jude 1:20-23 ESV

 

“But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.”

 

Because so many people are professing faith in Jesus Christ, but it is a false faith in another Jesus and in a different gospel, we have many people calling themselves Christians who deny Jesus as Lord (owner-master) of their lives, who refuse to obey him, and who think they can keep on in their sinful addictions since they believe all their sins are covered by the blood of Christ.

 

So, this is an encouragement to all who profess the name of Jesus Christ. Our most holy faith teaches us that our salvation from sin is us dying with Christ to sin, being reborn of the Spirit of God, and living to Christ and to his righteousness in the power of God. It is us now walking (in conduct) no longer according to our flesh but now in accord with the Spirit of God.

 

It is us submitting to God and to his purposes for our lives, and it is us giving our lives to the Lord as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to him. It is us making him truly Lord (owner-master) of our lives. And it is us walking in obedience to our Lord’s commands, going where he sends us, and doing and saying what he commands us to do and to say.

 

It is us denying self and daily dying with Christ to sin, by his Spirit. And it is us loving others with the love of Christ, and caring about their needs, and it is us sharing the gospel of our salvation with all who will listen so that they will repent of their sins, walk in obedience to the Lord, and so they will surrender their lives wholly to Jesus Christ for his service.

 

For, many people, even some professers of faith in Jesus, are still bound in their sin and they are headed to hell if they do not turn their lives over to Jesus Christ and turn from their sins to walk in obedience to his commands.

 

So, we need to be diligent about our own walks of faith, making certain we are obeying the Lord, and then we must share the gospel with as many people as possible before our Lord comes back. So, we must pray for opportunities to share our faith. But if you are on the internet, at least in America, the door is still wide open to share the gospel on the internet.

 

If you are on Twitter or on Facebook or if you are on YouTube or any Christian discussion sites, or if you are a blogger, or if you are on Instagram and any other sites on the internet where you have the opportunity to share the gospel, please be telling people about Jesus, but please share the truth and not a diluted gospel which tickles itching ears.

 

Jude 1:24-25 ESV

 

“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”

 

All that we are and have in Christ Jesus is not of ourselves but of God. Our faith is a gift of God. And Jesus is the author and the perfecter of our faith. We can’t even come to faith in Jesus Christ unless God the Father draws us to Christ. So we can take no credit for our Christian lives. They are empowered by God, yet in His power we must surrender to His will.

 

So, yes, God/Jesus is the one who is able to keep us from stumbling, but he doesn’t do it without our cooperation. He doesn’t force his will upon us. We are not marionettes with God as our puppet master. We still have to choose him. We still have to choose to obey him. We still have to forsake our sins. And he empowers us to do it all.

 

I have heard people who are steeped in sin say they have prayed for God to rescue them or to remove from them the desire to sin and he hasn’t yet answered their prayer and so that is why they are still living in sin. But Jesus already made the way of escape for us. We just have to take it. He already provided the deliverance from sin. We just have to cooperate with him.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Matt 7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rom 12:1-2; Matt 5:13-16; Eph 2:8-10; Heb 12:1-2; Jn 6:44; 1 Pet 2:9; Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20]

 

The following is a secular song, but these quoted words express God’s words to us, that we would let him be our freedom, that we would let him shelter us and be our light, and that we would find our hope, and our peace and safety in him and not in the things of this dark world. All he asks of us is that we love him, which means we submit to him as Lord, and we obey his commands.

 

All I Ask of You

 

by Andrew Lloyd Webber

 

No more talk of darkness,

Forget these wide-eyed fears;

I'm here, nothing can harm you,

My words will warm and calm you.

Let me be your freedom,

Let daylight dry your tears;

I'm here, with you, beside you,

To guard you and to guide you.

 

Let me be your shelter,

Let me be your light…

 

Love me, that's all I ask of you

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uahlf4fo3iQ

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