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[0:00] Well, please, if you would, let's turn to the book of Jude. Jude is found right near the end of the New Testament, almost right near the end of the New Testament.

[0:30] So what I would like to do is, it's only a short letter.

[0:47] I'd like to read it in one go, if that's okay, and then we'll pay attention to it in terms of its message. So now hear God's word.

[1:00] Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ, may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.

[1:14] 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 for all the saints.

[1:26] For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were destined for condemnation, for destined for this condemnation on godly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.

[1:44] Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus who was saved, Jesus who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed those who did not believe.

[1:58] 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 gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.

[2:12] Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality, pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

[2:27] Yet in like manner, these people, also relying on dreams, defiled 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.

[2:49] But these people blaspheme all that they do, not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.

[3:01] 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.

[3:12] These are blemishes on your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear. Looking after themselves, waterless clouds swept along by winds, fruitless trees in the late autumn, twice dead, uprooted, wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam from their own shame, wandering stars, from whom the gloom of the utter darkness has been reserved forever.

[3:38] It was also about these that Enoch, in the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

[4:06] These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires. They are loudmouth boasters showing favoritism to gain advantage.

[4:19] But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, In the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions.

[4:34] In these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, build yourselves up in the most holy faith. Pray in the Holy Spirit.

[4:45] Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt. Save others by snatching them out of the fire.

[4:58] To others, show mercy with fear, hating even the garments stained by the flesh. 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.

[5:13] 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.

[5:24] Amen. Amen. If I don't drink water, my kidneys start hurting.

[5:40] So I stand up here straight at the beginning and I'm like this at the end. So anyway, as we participate in these services over these next few weeks, the main thrust is becoming Christ-like.

[5:59] And of course, we become Christ-like in a culture that is very anti-Christ. And there is, of course, a difference between coming to church and becoming. God has us here listening to his word, engaging in prayers and fellowship, the breaking of bread, so that we would become like Christ.

[6:20] It is possible to come and not become, but that's not God's intention. And of course, you would have to search your own heart over the years that you have been a Christian, which has the greater majority.

[6:32] How much have you becoming and how much have you just been coming and how much have you actually become? And that there's a challenge to us all. The issue here in the book of Jude is that we are to contend for the faith and we are content for the faith by remembering what faith it is that we have received.

[6:56] Now, in order for us to really enjoy the doxology at the end of the letter of Jude, we have to perhaps understand the letter of Jude itself. You know, 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 forevermore.

[7:23] Why does he include all of that in his doxology? Well, because all of those are centered in Christ, which is the very thing in the letter of Jude that people are trying to depart from.

[7:36] They don't want Christ's authority ruling over their lives. They want to perhaps live their own. Now, one of the things you realize when reading the New Testament is that God keeps and God separates.

[7:52] We see this in the parable the good fish and the bad fish. It's one of the shortest parables, one of my favorites, you have the good fish and the bad fish.

[8:02] They are gathered in by one net and they are separated, the good from the bad. The point here is that in the gathering process, like J.C. Rowell said, you're never going to have a pure church, meaning that the wheat and the tares grow alongside each other.

[8:19] And therefore, how do you make distinctions when you have a gathering of mixed people? Distinctions will have to be made when Jesus told the parable about the wheat and the tares, it was not that the disciples couldn't recognize the difference between the two.

[8:36] They could, or else you would never have had a parable. They could tell the difference between the two. But rather, what do you do when there is a difference between the two?

[8:48] Well, you have to contend for the faith once delivered. over time, after the contending has run its course and Christ returns, God will then separate.

[9:01] So there is a final separation where God separates all matters of lawlessness and sin out from the world and out, you read Matthew 13, there's a beautiful parable which ends that basically that we are not taken from the world, all ungodliness and sinfulness is taken from the world.

[9:22] So the good stuff is left behind, the bad stuff is taken away. God separates and God separates because the two do not belong together.

[9:35] Now Jude writes a letter with the intention, as you can see in verse, excuse me, in verse 3, to write about the common salvation that they shared.

[9:50] But he doesn't write about that. What he writes about is what he says next. But I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith.

[10:03] In other words, not everyone in the church that he is writing to shares the common salvation. He wanted to write a letter to the church about them sharing in this salvation together, but he couldn't do that.

[10:18] And the reason he couldn't do that is because people have crept in unnoticed, verse 4, who are perverting the grace of God. So the common, it's not common.

[10:31] It's, it's, he can share the common salvation with some, but not all. Because the church now is not a group of people where they all share the same thing. It has become a people where there are, it has become a church where there are people in it perverting the grace of God.

[10:46] So he wanted to write a letter about sharing in the common salvation, but he couldn't. And he couldn't because of false teachers that have infected the church and are now perverting the grace of God.

[10:59] Now he has to write a letter about contending for the faith. Now the question that, of course, most of you will be asking at this point, at least, hopefully you'll be asking, is that how can Jude know that these people are in the church if they've crept in unnoticed?

[11:20] Don't that ever strike you when you read a verse like that? Well, how do you know? How does Jude know? Well, the question is not rather how does Jude know, but how is it that people in the church don't know?

[11:36] And that is because their faith over time has become diluted. Jude understands the faith clearly, he is able to notice the false teachers that have crept in unnoticed, but the reason they have crept in unnoticed to the congregation is because though they knew the faith, verse 5, fully, they fully knew it at one point, he's now having to remind them.

[12:03] Because most of you will know that if you took, I don't know, a probability exam or algebra exam in secondary school or whatever, and you were to take that same exam now, you may not get exactly the same results.

[12:17] You might have improved, but you might have forgotten a lot. Perhaps not Sandy being a math teacher, but generally, generally speaking, most of us wouldn't do quite as well on an exam 10 years after we took it as we did at the point that we were studying for it.

[12:33] And so we understand the difference between knowing something fully and then over time forgetting it. And so what Jude is having to do, he's having to remind the church of something that they fully knew, but now no longer fully knew.

[12:52] He has to remind them. And this explains why false teachers have been able to creep in unnoticed. Not unnoticed to Jude because he fully understands the gospel, but unnoticed to others who have become diluted in their faith and now they're not quite sure about what grace actually is.

[13:11] Now they're not quite sure about what the gospel actually is. And so people are able to come in and talk about things and, oh, that sounds kind of reasonable. Yeah, we'll have a bit of that.

[13:21] We'll have a bit of this. But James says, no, that is a perversion of the grace of God. And the reason you don't notice it is because you yourselves are in need of being reminded of the gospel.

[13:34] So I want to speak about our common salvation. but I can't for two reasons. The first reason is, of course, there are people in the church whose this is not common to.

[13:47] And secondly, it doesn't seem as if it's all that common with the people that it once was because they have departed, they have diluted in their understanding, verse five.

[14:01] So there are people in the church who are unaware of what the actual true gospel is. false teachers have crept in unnoticed because people are no longer discerning. To put it in Romans 12 context, they are not presenting their bodies as a living sacrifice, being renewed in their mind, able then to discern what the will of God is, what is good, acceptable, and perfect.

[14:23] They're not able to do that. So this goes back to a worship issue. We're able to work out what the problem is because we know that people who engage in true worship become discerning, able to discern what is good, acceptable, and perfect.

[14:37] Well, if these people were unable to do that in this church, we now know it's a worship issue as well. So there's quite a decline in this church which James has to address rather than write about the common salvation that he once enjoyed with them.

[14:54] But God is able to keep his people as we read in the doxology. Now to him who's able to keep you. The question is, is how does God keep us? Well, he keeps us by encouraging us to contend for the faith.

[15:09] He keeps us by his grace and by his mercy, but he keeps us in the moment also by contending for his gospel, for the faith once delivered for all the sense.

[15:21] And he keeps us from those who are perverting the gospel, perverting the grace of God, verse 6, those who are disobeying God. God protects us from those who seek to pervert the grace.

[15:35] And so he protects us in that way. So Jude's intention is now writing to a church that they would contend for the faith that was once delivered to all the saints.

[15:47] One faith, as we read in Ephesians, one faith, not many, one faith which you are to contend for. And so Jude highlights the importance of contending for this faith by giving us several Old Testament examples of those who reject authority and in turn ultimately reject, are rejecting God.

[16:12] And as they reject God, they become people who pervert the grace of God. And this is what James is wanting the people to see. So not only is it an authority problem, it is also a moral problem which is why he highlights Sodom and Gomorrah in verse 7.

[16:31] The problem with Sodom and Gomorrah was that God was going to destroy the city and even though it was the most ungodly place to be in.

[16:44] I mean, if you ever asked yourself the question, how did Lot ever end up in Sodom and Gomorrah? Because when you read the account and you get the division of land between Abraham and himself and he goes one way, Abraham goes the other, they're camped outside of Sodom, outside of Sodom and Gomorrah.

[17:04] But a few years later when the angels of the Lord come to rescue Lot, he's living in Sodom. What happened? And I don't want to put all the blame on his wife, but it clearly was the desire of his wife.

[17:18] His wife must have loved the shops. He must have loved the atmosphere of Sodom. And the reason we know that the emphasis is placed on her rather than him is because she was the one who turned back, not him.

[17:32] It was too much to leave behind. Like, she was still clinging, you know, even if it was coming to destruction, she thought, well, perhaps one more day.

[17:42] Perhaps we can do this in one more day. Perhaps we can get away with it for just one more day. And therefore, we understand the issues there. And God is, Jude is using that example of Sodom and Gomorrah, which reminds us of Lot and his wife.

[18:00] You know, when you read the account, it's striking where Lot doesn't want the angels to stay in the city. Do you remember? They say, well, we're going to sleep outside on the wind.

[18:11] He says, no, and if I was one of the angels, clearly I'm not, I would have said to him, but Lot, you live here. Why don't you want me to stay in the place where you live?

[18:25] I think Lot knew he should have never been living there. But I think his wife was the deciding factor in it. Hence why you see it in her turning back.

[18:35] Remember Lot's wife. What are we, we're not told to remember that Lot had a wife. We're told to remember what it is about Lot's wife that we should be warned by. So there is this immorality issue.

[18:49] Unnatural desires, to put it a slightly more basic way. Then there are those like Cain, verse 11, who live a life under compulsion. And they live a life under compulsion for the purpose of gain.

[19:04] And these two go together quite clearly in the New Testament, which we can see. So Jude is expecting us to contend for the faith under three very distinct areas, or at least the three that I've highlighted here.

[19:20] You have the authority, grace issue, the perverting of the grace of God. Contend for it there. Then you have the authority issues where the angels want to just do their own thing.

[19:31] And he says, you know, they're just deciding to take authority upon themselves. Then you have the unnatural desires, which is tied up with the authority. And then, of course, Cain, which is tied up with a life under compulsion, not freedom, who do it for gain.

[19:49] It's all essentially the same issue. It is a perversion of the grace of God. So what I would like to do is I'd like to address this under three basic headings. The first one is, do you know? The second one is, the right to choose.

[20:02] And the third one is, life under compulsion. Life under compulsion is probably going to be the one of great focus over these next few weeks, and you'll see why.

[20:13] But firstly, do you know? Jude seems to be concerned that the reason why these false teachers have crept in unnoticed is because the focus is on the people not noticing them.

[20:26] So the issue is, in one part, the false teachers, the other part is, how come you didn't notice? How come you didn't know that you had false teachers amongst you? Well, it's because they are unable to discern the difference between their message and the message of the true gospel.

[20:43] And that comes back, as we said, Romans 12, because they're not clearly presenting their bodies as a living sacrifice, able to discern what is good, acceptable, and perfect.

[20:54] Jude remedies this by reminding them of the gospel. In other words, they have been instructed once, they have been saved, now they need reminding of what the gospel actually is. Because unless you are, unless you keep your mind renewed, Romans 12, then ungodly beliefs can creep in.

[21:14] Unless your mind is being renewed, unless you have what I would call the conversion of your beliefs, there's many of, there's lots of Christians who are saved by grace through faith, but who have quite a lot of unconverted beliefs that still have to be renewed.

[21:30] Romans 12. And the reason these false teachers have got in is largely to do with that which is quite easily to see. The sheer evidence that they have crept in unnoticed is the sort of damning mark that distinguishes what has happened in this church.

[21:51] And so they're able to lead people astray because they're unable to tell the difference between what is true and false. And then of course, this leads us to the example of those being rescued from Egypt and then destroyed in the wilderness.

[22:05] You'll notice that Jude clearly puts that it was Christ who saved them from Egypt. If you go back to verse 5.

[22:17] Now I want to remind you, although we fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, so Jude has a very good Christology. He understands that when Moses led his people out of Egypt, it was Jesus doing it.

[22:32] Okay? He understands that when God rescued his people from Pharaoh and brought them out into the wilderness, that Jesus was there doing it. When Jesus saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed those who didn't believe.

[22:48] And therefore, you have these whole group of people that have experienced the grace of God, seen the miracles of God, led out into a place where they have continued in their unbelief and have been destroyed by Christ for it.

[23:05] I want to address, if I can, just ever so briefly, and it will have to be brief, that you do realize that there are three tenses to salvation. You have been saved, you are being saved, and you will be saved.

[23:17] Why three? Well, it would be wrong to say at the moment that I'm saved. It would be right to say that I am saved from the coming judgment and for God.

[23:35] In other words, that what Christ accomplished on the cross has guaranteed my salvation. But I've not yet been saved from it because it hasn't yet happened. The judgment is still yet to happen.

[23:47] So I am saved because I'm guaranteed of the salvation. But there is a coming judgment from which I will be saved because Christ died for me. And in the meantime, I am being saved.

[24:01] And therefore, one of the things that we recognize, one of the defining marks of a Christian is that they become more and more like Christ because they're saved. They're being saved. There is a tangible change within the life of a person who belongs to Christ Jesus.

[24:17] They have been saved, they are being saved, and they will be saved. And this is the distinction between grounds, effects, and impact. The grounds of the gospel is that you are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus, that there is no salvation without representation, that Christ represents you on the cross, and that is the grounds of your salvation.

[24:41] The effects of your salvation is godliness, is walking in grace, it's faithfulness, it is becoming like Christ. In other words, God hasn't saved you and then leaves the rest of it up to you.

[24:56] God hasn't saved you and then leaves you becoming like Christ up to you. No, the effects of the gospel is that a person who is saved by it becomes like Christ.

[25:06] They are being saved. And then ultimately, we are saved. And this is the faith that Jude is getting his people to contend for. So those who have come and perverted the gospel and said, no, you can live this way, you can live that way, you can basically do immoral acts and still be saved, James says, no, because the effects of the gospel is that a person who is saved by grace will produce the fruit of grace effectively.

[25:35] It's impossible to live a sort of, I think it was, it came out of Dallas Theological Seminary, what's known as a carnal Christian. There is no such thing as a carnal Christian.

[25:47] You cannot be saved by grace and live carnally. The death you died, you died to sin in Christ Jesus. So it's very clear how this perversion can creep in, even in the modern day church.

[26:02] And the reason it creeps in is because people who are trying to be clever are trying to look at the experience of Christian lives and give an account for it. And so the account for why so many Christians or so-called Christians are living ungodly lives is that there must be such a thing as carnal Christianity, that you can be saved by grace but you're not yet, you're not really becoming like Christ.

[26:27] When I think the much more straightforward answer is they're just not saved. Because the grounds of the gospel and the effects of the gospel go together. that the gospel of grace produces the effects of someone becoming more and more like Christ.

[26:46] And therefore if someone isn't becoming like Christ, however much they profess to be saved, they are not. And that's the clarity of the gospel. It's very clear.

[26:57] But of course it's just too clear for people who want things a little perverted, who want things messed up. The second issue then is this right to choose.

[27:09] Jude points to the disobedience of the angels. And what the point that he is making is that he is making a point about authority. In other words, when your choice is an act of disobedience.

[27:24] I've often struggled with this but I think I understand it fairly clearly is that when we look at the life of Jesus Christ and we look at the choices that he made, it's very clear that he did the Father's will.

[27:35] What you see me doing, I can only do what I see the Father doing. In other words, his choice was informed by the will of God. He was free to choose just like Adam in the garden was free to choose.

[27:47] But your freedom can be used in two different ways. You can either obey or disobey and so your free choice is still free but it's what you use that free choice to do.

[28:00] and these people who are contending against the authority of God who say, well it's their right to choose. It is your right to choose. No one is arguing that you have the right to make any decision you want but understand that whatever choice you do make it will either be an act of obedience or an act of disobedience.

[28:22] It can't be anything else. You have the right to choose but your choice will either be an act of obedience or an act of disobedience and that's the issue that Jude is getting at here that we are meant to understand.

[28:38] And so people who want to affirm their right to choose I'm not not affirming that. People have the right to choose but I want you to understand that your right to choose can either be obedience or disobedience before God.

[28:55] It can't be anything other than that. There's not a third option here. And therefore you're able to leave the service this morning choosing to believe what I said is true or choosing to believe what I said is not true or choosing to live however way you want but you will never be free from whether or not those choices are pleasing to God or displeasing.

[29:19] You'll never be free from whether or not they are obedient or disobedient. You'll never be free from whether or not they are consistent with the will of God or inconsistent with the will of God. However way you want to express your freedom of choice great but they're not it's not free from obedience or disobedience.

[29:37] And this is the emphasis that James is making that people have got to understand this that what is being robbed is not your freedom but how you use the freedom to choose. And what these people are doing here just like the angels is that they are rallying against the authority of God.

[29:53] They don't want God to choose for them. And of course the Christian is called to submission to the will of God like Christ that we are to live in accordance with the will of God and therefore any authority we have over perhaps our children or anybody else is a borrowed authority.

[30:10] The only authority I have as a pastor is a borrowed authority. I have none of my own. I can only declare the authority of God as I stand here I can't declare my authority. And any choices I make I can choose whatever I like but I can't choose whatever I like regardless of whether or not it's obedience or disobedience.

[30:30] And this is what Jude is trying to get his church to understand. This is what we are contending for. We are contending for the faith that was once delivered and this is what it means. So a man can murder another man.

[30:43] I wouldn't argue that he has the right to do it but he suddenly has the right and the choice and the freedom to make that choice.

[30:56] But I would never agree for a moment that just because he has the freedom to choose that that means he has the freedom for it to be okay or the freedom to get away with it.

[31:10] And so when we're talking about contending for the faith and this issue of authority what we're really talking about is whether or not the choices we make are obedient or disobedient pleasing or unpleasing to God.

[31:23] You have the power to choose but you don't have the power to determine what is right or wrong. You have the ability to do both but you do not have the right before God to do both without consequence.

[31:38] And this is what Jude is trying to get us to consider as we contend for the faith. And then thirdly of course is life under compulsion.

[31:49] Those people in Jude who are driven by instinct almost animal instinct. He says here if I can just read in verse 9 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 but these people blaspheme all that they do not understand and they are destroyed by all like they are unreasoning animals understand instinctively.

[32:25] Woe to them for they walked in the way of Cain who abandoned themselves for the sake of gain and so forth. Life under compulsion is where a person is driven by their body.

[32:42] This is the way that I feel so therefore this is who I am. If I feel that I am a man trapped or a woman trapped in a man's body therefore I am a woman trapped in a man's body.

[32:58] That's instinctive living. That's living life under compulsion. That's not a life of freedom. what it means is these instincts are driving your identity.

[33:11] You think you're making a free choice but actually it's your feelings that are determining who you say you are what you say you will do. You're living a life not of freedom but a life under compulsion and the compulsion is these instincts these animal instincts feelings dreams desires remain unchecked by the word of God.

[33:34] life under compulsion is one that basically doesn't present their bodies to God as a living sacrifice but actually obeys their bodies.

[33:48] A person who obeys their feelings. And let me just say in case we're thinking of any particular people in particular we all do this to some extent.

[34:01] we all do this to some extent. So it's no good pointing at obvious examples of a man feeling that he is a woman trapped inside of a man's body which is someone who's obeying their body.

[34:21] They're not obeying the authority of God's word. They're not living in grace. They're not presenting their bodies as a living sacrifice. But then the same could be said for any of you who follow your particular body feelings without presenting them to God as a living sacrifice.

[34:44] Drink too much? Spend too much? Drugs? Any of these informed instincts that inform your decisions is you've got the same problem.

[35:00] You think you're free, but actually it's a life under compulsion. These instincts have so much power over you that you're not actually free from them. You can't do anything but obey them.

[35:14] And that is of course a sign of someone not being under the grace of God. Because the grace of God teaches us to say no to ungodliness. In Romans 6 we learn very clearly that the gospel sets us free from the law of sin and death.

[35:29] No longer do we have to obey the passions of the body. The gospel is the only answer for someone living a life under compulsion. Because it's the only thing that can separate a person from living under the domineering influence of sin and death.

[35:51] It's the only way. the grace of God which is being perverted here actually enables a person to say no to sin and yes to God. And therefore people are perverting grace by you can do whatever you like.

[36:07] One of my favorite but one of the things I have to say often whenever this comes up in some kind of debate is that some people will say well God hasn't punished me.

[36:20] You're telling me that I'm doing something that God doesn't want me to do and God isn't punishing me. God isn't doing anything to me. And I said he's not disciplining me.

[36:35] I don't feel that I'm under judgment and I said but that is the worst possible thing that could ever happen to you because God only ever disciplines his children. If God is leaving you alone then you're not his.

[36:52] God is the very presence of discipline that allows us to understand and appreciate our sonship. It's the very presence of God disciplining us that teaches us that we're his children.

[37:07] The absence of it isn't grace. The absence of it is the very absence of grace. And so you can see how easy it is for people to do things that marry unbelievers.

[37:24] You've got a Christian marrying an unbeliever. God hasn't punished me. I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm drinking too much and I'm getting drunk but God isn't punishing me.

[37:35] He isn't doing anything wrong. I'm getting away with it. Lot's wife thought she was getting away with it. Two days before fire and brimstone ran down on Sodom and Gomorrah.

[37:49] Do you think any of them were thinking well it's not happened yet? The prodigal son when he left his father with a pocket full of money did you think after day two he was still thinking all right so far?

[38:05] Okay that type of thinking is the equivalent to me jumping off a skyscraper and saying halfway down it's all right so far of course it's all right so far I haven't got to the point where I've hit anything and this is how people prepare the grace of God they use that space between now and the coming judgment it's all right so far I'm getting away with it but are you really getting away with it and this is how Jude wants us to contend for the faith now we must recognize that there is a difference between natural and unnatural desires and with this I'll finish as we come to our exhortation that if you have a desire to eat because you're hungry that's a good natural desire that is consistent with the way God has made you if you have a desire to drink and as Isaiah says in the first reading that we had that is a natural for a person who is saved by

[39:12] God's grace it's unnatural in terms of being the person that God has designed you to be but the Proverbs warns us against just how powerful life under compulsion can be and this is what the proverb says the man prays to the Lord God and he says Lord I pray that you keep poverty and riches from me I pray that you keep poverty praise it lest I am tempted by riches and deny you or I'm tempted by poverty and steal in other words the man fully understands that if his life is exposed to certain elements it can cause him to do certain things that if I have too much poverty I'm going to be tempted to steal I'm going to be tempted to feed my family I'm going to be tempted to join a call center trying to scam you out of your money over the telephone because I have children to feed these people who make those telephone calls ask what's going on that causes them to do that this proverb tells us when people live in countries like

[40:23] India where there is abject poverty they can be tempted to steal and one of the ways they can be tempted to do it is by phoning you give me your card details this is the proverb explains that that's what the proverb is explaining the reason why you get horrible uncles like that you need to understand this that these life under compulsion can turn a person into something that they are not meant to be and therefore we must contend for the faith so here's the exhortation as we close contending for the faith as James says in verse 5 means understanding the faith fully now there are many things in this letter that we have not touched upon that we are to contend for James wants to write about a common salvation but he can't because it's no longer common he has to write to them to contend for the faith that was once delivered and so he writes to this church it's not just about becoming more christ-like but it's about being the person that

[41:43]  God has called you to be in Christ and the way that you do that is by contending for the faith against everything contrary to Christ Amen to R