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[0:00] Hear the word of God. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation.

[0:38] Ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus who saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe, and the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomly darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

[1:14] Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise endowed in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

[1:30] Yet in like manner, these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, The Lord rebuke you.

[1:54] But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.

[2:06] Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain, and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error, and perished in Korah's rebellion.

[2:18] These are hidden reefs at your love feast, as they feast with you without fear. Shepherds feeding themselves, waterless clouds swept along by winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted, wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame, wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

[2:49] It was also about these that Enoch the seven from Adam prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all, and to convict all, the ungodly of all, the deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way.

[3:09] And of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires.

[3:20] They are loudmouth boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage. But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[3:32] They say to you, in the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions. It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.

[3:46] But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith, and praying the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, that leads to eternal life.

[3:58] 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.

[4:11] 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.

[4:29] Amen. Amen. And may the Lord add his blessing to the public reading of his own holy word. And I said this morning that this is a continuation, kind of a continuation from this morning.

[4:43] We looked at the first two verses this morning of the letter to Jude, of the Christian's blessings. The Christian's blessings. We looked at the identity of Jude, and also the purpose of his letter.

[5:02] And we can see that he wrote, he starts off with a greeting, but he knew, Jude knew that there was a crisis within the church, of Jesus Christ.

[5:12] Even at that early stage, that early church, first century, already there were issues cropping up within the church of Jesus Christ.

[5:24] And so for the first four verses, it was greetings and so on, and then we come from verse 5 to verse 16. There's all the various criticisms, accusations, warnings of all the various false ideas, and false teachers, and false teachings that is coming into the church of Jesus Christ.

[5:50] Even at that early stage. And so that was the purpose of the epistle. But then we look at, this morning we look at the Christian's blessings, and we thought, first of all, what is a Christian?

[6:02] Because he's going to, in verse 3 onwards, he's going to deal with a very, rather sensitive subject of the need to contend for the faith. And so, in order to deal with false teachers, Jude needed to establish, what is a Christian?

[6:21] What is a true Christian? Because if a person is not a genuine, true Christian, the need to combat false ideas would not be part of this person's psyche, or this person's mentality.

[6:40] You know, we do live in this day and age, and you do see that. Amongst those who are nominal, nominal Christians, professing Christians, nominal, they don't see the need to contend for the faith.

[6:59] They don't see the need to hold fast to the truth. They don't see the need to fight the good fight of faith. But, so Jude had to, first of all, establish what is a Christian.

[7:14] And so we looked at, in that, those who are called, beloved in the God, the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ. And then, the manifold blessings that comes from knowing the Lord.

[7:25] May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. And so, so that's the Christian blessings that we considered this morning.

[7:36] But now, today, this evening, we look at the Christian's task. The Christian's task. Jude is not going to just let Christians know that they are Christians, but there's a job to be done.

[7:49] There's a job to be done. And so, the first thing we can say concerning the Christian's task is, or before we go into the actual Christian's task, we need to realize also that there's, Jude was genuinely concerned for the people of God.

[8:07] So, he starts off in verse 3 with the word beloved. The word beloved. You see, before he would go, before he went in with all guns blazing, Jude is going to address his readers, or his hearers, as beloved.

[8:29] It's the same as how Peter addressed, you know, in his epistle, in his second, in his first episode, chapter 2, we read, Peter wrote, Dearly beloved, or dear friends.

[8:42] You know, there's this genuine concern that who he's addressing, first of all, are beloved, obviously, beloved of the Lord. And you know, this is something that it sets a scene, it sets a tone, it kind of gives the starting point that he's addressing, first of all, those who are beloved of the Lord.

[9:04] And you know, Jesus himself commanded his disciples to love one another. You know, in John chapter 13, that famous verse, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another.

[9:20] Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, notice this, by this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love, if you have love for one another.

[9:37] And so, Judas probably has that in his mind when he wrote, beloved, although I was very eager to write to you. See this? He, he, he, he's, he's genuine love for the brethren.

[9:49] And it's the same for us, we ought to love when we, before we go in with the issues of the day, we must realize that we are speaking and we are addressing fellow Christians.

[10:03] John, elsewhere, the apostle John reminded fellow Christians to love one another as a proof of their conversion. 1 John chapter 4 verse 7 read, we read, beloved, see that word?

[10:15] Beloved, let us love one another for love is from God. For whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

[10:28] You see that? You know, before Jesus or the apostles, before laying down all the warnings and the threatenings and the rebukes, just like Jude, they always start with beloved.

[10:46] Beloved. You can say it's almost like it's tough love. You know that phrase tough love? Like a parent disciplining a child. We discipline our children because we love our children.

[10:58] And so, while it may seem pretty hard and especially if you read this letter, everything that is going to proceed from verse 5 onwards is going to be pretty hard going.

[11:09] he's very hard on his hearers. But he has, he's doing it because he loves the people of God. And you know, this is something that is very much misused today.

[11:26] Partly due to social media, the internet has a way of allowing people who ought to keep their mouth shut to have a platform to air their grievances, usually without knowledge.

[11:41] And so, you see in social media, you know, everybody seems to be able to air their point of view, whether there's any evidence is almost beside the point.

[11:58] That's the difference with Jude. Jude is doing this because he knew the people he was addressing, he knew what was at stake, he knew what was going on within the church of Jesus Christ, and so he went about, before he even starts his own, you know, 14 verses of criticisms and comments and so on, before he starts that, he's going to start off with a genuine concern for his hearers.

[12:32] And I think that is something that we ought to learn. We don't just air our point of view for the sake of air our point of view to anyone that we know, especially if they are believers in Christ, we ought to know that they are first of all beloved of the Lord, and because they are beloved of the Lord, we ought to love them too.

[12:58] We ought to show some concern before we go into our admonition, and there's a place for that, let's be clear, there's a place for admonition, there's a place for warning, there's a place for the need for discernment, there's a place for asking the people of God to exercise some God-given discernment in their lives, there's a place for that, but before we go in with all guns blazing, remember that we're addressing still the Lord's people, and we ought to start off with beloved.

[13:35] Well, so that's kind of almost sets the scene for us, it's all about showing some concern, Jude was showing concern for the people of God, and now we come to the kind of the meat of verse 3, we'll be looking primarily at verse 3, the importance of the letter is all about salvation, this is all about the about the Christian faith and salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, and so we read, 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 delivered to the saints.

[14:21] You see, after his sincere greeting and then his concern for them, he's going to give some reasons for the admonition, and this, he does that with some sense of urgency and need.

[14:37] We read that, I feel it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith, and I believe in the authorized version, I was compelled, I would urge you, I was very eager to read in verse three, and we must, we do, we must realize that the reasons he's going to give, they're not haphazard reasons, these are reasons that he thought through very, very carefully, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints.

[15:20] He had thought through these reasons very, very carefully. He was eager, or in, in, in, in, literally means something like earnest application. Be eager, earnest application.

[15:35] Thomas Manton, in his, the Puritan, who wrote a whole commentary on the book of Jude, he wrote, it is not enough for them, whether it be ministers or any Christian, it's not enough for them to press that wherein they were most versed, or what comes next to hand, but to study what will most contribute to the ends of the ministry with such a people.

[16:04] Study to prove thyself a good workman. Wicked men may stumble upon good, but they do not study to do good. Common spirits may be moved to pray, but they do not watch unto prayer.

[16:18] Basically, what Thomas Manton is saying in a typical Puritan, slightly long-winded fashion is, we must always make sure that we are applying, or we have application, we don't just go into an issue without actually applying, or having any application.

[16:40] There must be, we are going to see in this particular episode, Jude, or this in verse 3, there is a reason, there is a reason why he is writing to them to contend for the faith.

[16:55] There is a reason for that. It is about salvation, it is all about the Christian faith. In fact, we can say Christianity is all about the faith, or we read about the so-called common salvation.

[17:10] See, he was about to write about our common salvation, so evidently he had this in his mind, the back of his mind. But he realized that the common salvation, the faith, is at stake here, with all the false teachers and the false teachings coming in.

[17:29] he realized that this is at stake. And so he had to reason and come with various reasons, which the rest of the epistle is going to deal with that. But he's very concerned about that.

[17:43] It's all about the common salvation, it's all about the faith. Now, you see, and again this harkens back to the first verse, Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James.

[18:00] You see, even though Jude was a half brother, and more importantly, a servant or a slave of Jesus Christ, Jude is going to write to all the average Christians that he's addressing.

[18:20] he's going to write to all the average Christians. And whether he be the half brother of Jesus, whether he be a slave to Jesus Christ, whether they are whatever walks of life these Christians come from, whether they be rich or poor, whether they have high social standing or no social standing, they have one thing in common.

[18:45] They have one thing in common, and that is their salvation. their conversion. That is something that is common to all his hearers, all his readers, and that's the same with all of us, if we are converted to Christ, if we are Christians this evening.

[19:08] He wasn't going to start more controversy, there's enough controversy coming into the church at that time, he was not going to add further controversy by creating unnecessary splits, by writing on some subject that is that is that is that is the good who cause divisions and create party lines being drawn.

[19:34] And it's very possible that the heretics or the false teachers were doing exactly that. In fact, we kind of can tell that they were doing that because we read that for certain people have crept in verse 4, certain people have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were designated for condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.

[20:01] These people had already come in and they were already creating within the church itself a division. And not in a good way as well, they were creating a division of those who are so-called professing Christians but living very ungodly lives.

[20:23] So, Jude is not going to create any further divisions by writing something controversial. He's going to talk about our common salvation. He's going to talk about the faith, obviously, the Christian faith.

[20:37] faith. You know, our conversion, how we came to Christ, may be different and it will be different from you and I.

[20:53] Some may come from a very difficult background. Some may, and you may have heard of stories, maybe you're one of those, of those who are, you know, perhaps gone through a life of open sin and a life of drunkenness, a life of drunk abuse, a life that is completely godless and completely devoid of anything Christian.

[21:23] Or you may be those like Lydia, whom the Lord opened the heart. Whichever way, you may be like a soul, who is breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.

[21:43] Whichever way, whatever you may come from, whatever background you may be from, there's one thing that's going to be common to all three groups, whether it be one who are persecuting Christians, one who is a drunkard and a drunk user, or one who is gentle and the Lord opened the heart, whichever way, we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

[22:14] That is a common salvation. Our experience may be different, but what is going to be identical is that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

[22:27] Christ. And that is something that is going to be the same for all Christians, which is why it's called a common salvation. Common salvation is not about, you know, who is the Antichrist.

[22:42] That's not a common salvation. Some Christians, genuine Christians, have different ideas of who is the Antichrist. The common salvation is not about what's the number of the beast, what does it represent.

[22:54] And the common salvation is not about who wrote 2 Peter. Yeah, we believe that Peter wrote it, but there are those who don't. There may be those who do not believe what the number of the beast represent, you know, but that is not a common salvation.

[23:14] That's not part of the common salvation. We're talking about the faith, we're talking about the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, we're talking about that which is recorded in the scriptures.

[23:30] It is all about how God, not man, dealt with sinners, saved by grace. We're talking about a good news, we're talking about the one gospel, Jesus Christ.

[23:46] We read, and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. That is, that is the faith, that is that common salvation.

[24:00] Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That is the faith, that is the common salvation in Jesus Christ. Thomas Manton wrote, the price of Christ's blood for all souls was equal.

[24:19] salvation. If you've been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, then whatever social standing you're in, whatever background you may come from, it doesn't really matter, because the price of Christ's blood for all souls was equal.

[24:46] This is the faith, this is that common salvation. And this faith, this common salvation has been deposited to the church of Jesus Christ.

[24:59] You know, you read in 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 15, the household of God, which is a church of the living God, the pillar and buttress of the truth. You realize that as a church, we are the custodials of the truth.

[25:17] The truth, the gospel has been deposited to us for, as it were, safe keeping, but also for proclamation. But this is what we have as the church.

[25:31] It has been given this gospel, this good news, this common salvation. The church of the living God, the pillar and buttress of the truth.

[25:46] And not only that, but we read in verse 3, again, we stay in verse 3, that this faith was once for all delivered to the saints. This once for all delivered to the saints.

[26:01] Jude is telling them that this is not something that is new for Jude. And it's not new for us. He's not coming up with something novel, something new, something fanciful, something to wow, to hear us and wow the readers.

[26:17] No, this is something that has been deposited under the inspiration of God. Jude is giving them or reminding them, this has been deposited to you already. Once for all delivered to the saints.

[26:34] Once for all. It's not going to be something that is new every hundred years, every five hundred years. No, this is something that is given. once to the saints.

[26:48] It is being given to the church of Jesus Christ. We are the custodians of the truth, the gospel, not the government. Sadly, we have to be quite clear on this.

[27:02] Not the government, not society. Not some learned society, not some organization that is holding on to the truth.

[27:16] No, the church of Jesus Christ made up of saved sinners, those who have been bought with the blood of Jesus Christ. We hold this truth.

[27:28] We hold to this Christian faith centered around the person and work of Jesus Christ. And I say this because you may know years and years ago, must be, I don't know how many years ago now, there's this thing called the Jesus Seminar, I think, where a group of apparently learned people, people with PhDs and so on, with theology, theological degrees, gather together and determine which part of the New Testament did Jesus actually say and which part is spiritless.

[28:06] and they were dissecting the Bible, saying we are the learned society, we know and we can tell you which part the Bible is genuine and which part is just made up.

[28:22] Suffice to say that nobody really, no Christians really took their point of view seriously, but there were some who sadly got drawn into this so-called learned group.

[28:34] no, they don't have, nobody has the right to the truth apart from those who have been born with the blood of Jesus Christ, those of us with the Bible, when we use it properly, prayerfully, well, we have the truth, the common salvation in our hands and in our midst.

[29:01] But then now we come to the necessity of this letter, the whole point of him writing this letter is to contend for the faith. Remember I said at the beginning of this it's all about the Christian's task, and the task is this, we are to contend for the faith.

[29:20] You read, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints. In the authorized version there is this earnestly contend for the faith, earnestly, heartily, zealously, constantly contend for the faith.

[29:42] Not half-heartedness, not, you know, occasionally. This is something that we do it daily. Now it's not as dramatic as it sounds, but it is in one sense consistent in our lives, and it ought to be consistent in our lives, that we earnestly contend for the faith.

[30:05] Now the word contend, apparently in the original, literally is where we get the word agonize. Contend literally means agonize.

[30:18] The picture there is not one of warfare, it's not like fighting to the death, but it's talking about more in terms of athletics, like a sporting event, where you go into a sporting event to obviously to win a prize, you go into some athletics event, whether it be sprinting or whether it be marathon, you go in there to obtain a prize, and you agonize with that.

[30:46] If you ever do any long distance running, it's pretty painful, even short distance, even sprint, you know that it is agonizing.

[30:59] In the spiritual realm, it's the same thing. We contend earnestly for the faith, we agonize in this. And you know, Jude is not the only one who has this idea in his head.

[31:15] The apostle Paul, in three occasions, allude to this whole idea of agonizing, in some kind of athletics event.

[31:26] So you read in Philippians 1, 27, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit and with one mind striving, that word agonize, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.

[31:42] See, that is almost like I said this morning, Jude and Peter, Jude and Paul, they all say very much the same thing. Paul is encouraging them to stand firm in the one spirit, in the gospel, and strive side by side for the faith of the gospel.

[32:04] Elsewhere, Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 9, we read, do you not know that in a race, see that, in a race, all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.

[32:18] Now the wonderful thing about the Christian faith is you run and you will get a prize. only if you run, only if you agonize, only if you agonize in the Christian faith.

[32:32] There's no, the Christian faith is not about coasting along. If you think you're coasting along, well, you need to really get your heart chucked. You need to reflect on your own Christian life.

[32:46] There's no coasting along for the Christian faith. And again in Galatians 2, we read for them, we did not yield in submission even for one moment that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.

[33:01] That same concept of contending, agonizing, fighting over, defending the faith, speaking out at the right time concerning the truth of the gospel, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you in Galatians 2.

[33:18] There are reasons, and obviously Judy is not going to just leave the hearers just hanging there, why are you telling us all that? There are reasons for defending the truth, because we read in verse 4 that the ungodly have entered the church by stealth.

[33:34] This is at the first century, this is, Christ had barely died and rose from the dead, and within what, a span of 30 years, maybe 40 years, depends on when you think the letter of Jude was written, it's kind of towards the end of the first century, within 30, 40, maybe 50 years, within a lifetime for some of us, four teachers have come in, four teachers have come in already, you know, it's probably fresh in the minds of all these people, I remember seeing Christ rising from the dead, and within that few years, there you go, people are coming in, saying something completely different, imagine that, imagine that, men without piety, or without true religion, pretending to be religious teachers, verse four again, they shouldn't be amongst the people of

[34:37] God, they were not genuine believers, and there they are, not only in their midst, but they were teachers already, teaching the people of God, and what were they teaching?

[34:50] Well, they were basically abusing the doctrines of grace, these were ungodly people who pervert the grace, verse four, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality, and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ, basically, to put it in a nutshell, what they were saying is this, you've been saved by grace, wonderful, live any way you like, there's no need to think about the law, there's no need to think about sin and righteousness, there's no need to think, just live any way you like, there were the so called antinomians, you know, antinomians are those who are so called against the law, that's what antinomians mean, they were the antinomians in the time of Jude, imagine that, knowing very well what Jesus, what the death of

[35:50] Christ meant, and what the resurrection of Christ meant, knowing that, in that span of 30 years, 40 years, people have come in and said, nah, that's okay, Jesus died on the cross, yeah, very good, you believe that, fantastic, now you just live any way you like, do whatever you want, live, live any way you like, you know, that idea is still around, sadly, sadly, that idea is still around, that there are those who actually teach, and there are actually organizations that actually teach, that you can be saved by grace, and now you're released from the demands of the Ten Commandments, you can live any way you like, maybe not the sin bit, you know, but you can live any way you like, grace will still abound, there are some who actually teach that, sometimes they're called free graces, it's almost like a derogatory term, but in fact, that is kind of what they are doing, it's all about grace, it's all free, it's all wonderful, now you just live any way you like, you know,

[37:01] Paul already saw that that was going to happen, he may have seen it himself, but he certainly, under the inspiration of the spirit, he obviously foresaw this, he knew that if justification by faith alone is being properly emphasized, there will be a guard against the abuse, or a guard against sin in the life of the believer, if justification by faith is properly emphasized, and properly lifted out by the believer in Christ, that would be a guard against sin, which is right, he wrote in Romans 6, what shall we say then, are we to live in sin that grace may abound, God forbid, no, we don't do that, if we've been saved by grace, then you jolly well want to avoid sin, yes, he's not talking about sinless perfection, no Christian, in fact that will fly against the face of 1 John chapter 1, no Christian would be sinless until the day of glory itself, but while we are in this life, we should always be thinking about mortifying the deeds of the flesh, again,

[38:21] Romans 6, are we to continue in sin, that obviously is a rhetorical question, are we to continue in sin that grace may abound, he's not saying that, yeah, I can do that, no, we do not want to continue in sin, for the believer in Christ, our lives, when we have been converted, when we have been changed by the Spirit of God, our relationship to sin changes, but unfortunately, in the case of Jude, in the church of Jesus Christ, there are those who are coming in and threatening, and basically abusing, what we call the doctrines of grace, and by doing that, we read in verse 4 again, they pervert the grace of our God into sensuality, and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ, and notice this, there's one thing about false teachings, things, as they teach people to just take advantage of the grace of

[39:33] God, what people end up doing is not only perverting the grace of God, abusing it, but what would end up happening is that it would be a denial of the Lord Jesus Christ, a denial of his lordship, the denial of his lordship, there's no need to, we like to be saved by Jesus, but we don't want to acknowledge him as Lord, again, that is one of those things today, and I said already, Jude and Peter all seem to have the one mind, Peter, 2 Peter in verse chapter 2, we read, false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, 2 Peter chapter 2, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction, see that, even denying the master, denying the

[40:45] Lord Jesus Christ, that's one thing about false teachings, it's the ultimate conclusion, it's one of the logical consequence of false teachings, false teachings, you know, you don't, you don't come along, you don't see somebody come into the church of Jesus Christ with, you know, with a label on the head saying, I'm a false teacher, and you don't see that person coming amongst us, blatantly saying, you know, just live any way you like, let's engage in sin, let's follow the lifestyle of the world, but what happens is they tend to slowly, slowly pervert the grace of God, they will slowly, secretly bring in destructive heresies, and by the time you know it, people have gone down that road, some people will go down that road, sadly we may even know of some of our families and loved ones who follow that lifestyle, and follow that, that, that, that straight and narrow and gone into that broad path, and then the next thing you know is, oh, we don't really need

[42:08] Jesus anymore, we don't really need to acknowledge him as Lord, I'm now the master of my own life, captain of my own life, I can do whatever I like, yeah, you know, once in a while I'll just go to church and do the churchy things, it doesn't come, it doesn't come, you know, like overnight, it usually is a gradual decline, and so to contend for the faith is the task of the Christian, to contend is to use arguments, to use reason, to hold fast to some basic principles of the Christian faith, and to maintain them against those who seek to disrupt the church of Jesus Christ, we're not talking about, to contend is not about using of, the use of arms, the use of violence, the use of persecution, nothing, there's nothing to say about that, he's not referring to that because that's not the way of the Christian faith, not the use of violence, arms, or persecution, but to use arguments, and not being argumentative, but using arguments, reasoning, some basic principles of the Christian faith, maintaining them against those who are seeking to disrupt the Christian life, faith, and so how can we, and how should we contend for the faith?

[43:44] Well, I think first of all, we need to believe that God has given to us something to contend for, I think that goes without saying. If you don't believe that God has delivered to us something to contend for, then you would not think that this sermon was actually relevant to you, but if you believe that God has given us something to contend for, i.e.

[44:02] your common salvation, my common salvation, your faith, my faith, the faith, if you believe that that is what God has given to us, then, well, that's a good start. We believe that God has given to us something to contend for.

[44:17] John Gill, the Baptist commentator, wrote, everything which he has revealed, what God has revealed, we are to defend as true. Albert Barnes wrote, by careful study of the Bible, we are to ascertain what that system is, the system of whatever the Bible contains, and then in all places, at all times, in all circumstances, and at every sacrifice, we are to maintain it.

[44:48] So once you know what is in the scriptures, and you know what the scriptures teach, then, when you know it, that's what you need to defend, that's what you need to hold on to, that's what you need to maintain.

[45:07] Everything that God has revealed, we are to defend as true. And then next, we also need to bear, bear is a good testimony to it.

[45:24] So when we live our lives, we don't live our lives with, you know, we live our lives as Christians, as we read the scriptures, we know how we ought to live, and by doing that, we are, in one sense, contending for the faith, we are showing to a dying world that this is what we stand for, by the way we live our lives.

[45:50] We bear a testimony to it. And we pray, we ought to pray that the Lord will help us to continue walking that same journey on the straight and narrow, pray for continuous, pray for success, that when we speak to others, we have something to say to people.

[46:11] people. So it's not knowing that God has given us something to contend for, is one thing, but we ought to live it out in our own lives, and pray that the Lord will use us to maintain a good testimony for the Lord, and for his word.

[46:34] Because you know very well, if our testimony is a poor testimony, well, it would be very hard to contend for the faith. It would be very hard to contend for the faith.

[46:47] It's very hard to maintain a good testimony if we don't live a good Christian life. Which is why we ought to be very careful with the way we live.

[47:02] Our family members, if they are not believers, they are looking at us. If they see us, if our children see us, if our grandchildren see us, and they say, oh, you live like that, hmm, is that what the Christian faith is all about?

[47:18] And I've heard that, I've heard that before. Is that what the Christian faith is about? You can live this way? Why should I be a Christian? If we don't have, if we don't have a good testimony, well, why would it surprise us if our family members, our loved ones, look at us and say, why should I believe in this God?

[47:44] Why should I believe in this faith, in this common salvation? You don't live a life that is true to it. Well, finally, the way we should also contend, how we should contend for the faith is certainly to speak about it, to preach it, whether it be in a pulpit, whether it be in open air, you preach it boldly, openly, fully, faithfully.

[48:11] Sometimes we have to not argue with people over it, but sometimes we have to count gently, you know, speak to people about what we believe. Perhaps it may be those who write articles, well, can write about the Christian faith and write in defense of the Christian faith.

[48:34] We are not, thankfully we don't live in a country where we have to lay down our lives for the Christian faith, but you know, there are people elsewhere in the world where being a martyr is almost commonplace.

[48:48] You just read anything from Barnabas Trust or StatFast Global, all those missionary organizations that deal with Christians in persecuted lands or lands that deem the Christian faith to be a religion that should be outlawed.

[49:11] You see how they live their lives. They just have to lay down their lives as part of contending for the faith. And they do so with lots of courage and it ought to remind us we don't have to do that thankfully by the grace of God.

[49:30] This country still has religious freedom. But we must always remember at the back of our minds that there are Christians who are doing just that. And so just a few thoughts for us this evening as we come to this Jude 3 and a bit of verse 4, the Christian task.

[49:52] May the God bless this few thoughts to all our hearts that we may go forth in this coming week remembering that we ought to contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints.

[50:05]  Well, we'll that