Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said with all of our hearts, amen and amen. So we're here, we're gathering as a church. And I know not everyone is, but many of us are Christians. And that means we're part of what God is doing in this world, or at least we're meant to.

And I'll tell you this, Christianity is trying to do something remarkable in this world. Not only are we trying to convince the world that there's a God in heaven, but that he also loves us and wants to save us from our sins. And we're trying to do this for a world that loves darkness over light, a world that loves their pride more than righteousness, a world that in their hearts have already rejected a God that they don't even know.

Or to put it another way,

what we're trying to do is we're trying to unify the world around the kingship of Jesus Christ who was risen from the dead after he died for our sins on the cross. That's why we gather,

that's why we come together to worship and be built up so that we can go out and do this. Now, as you can imagine, the problems facing the task for the church are actually quite immense. On the one hand, we have our very own flesh that works against us, that works against God's plan in us. We have the ways of the world, just the rhythm of the world that's opposed to the things of God. Add to this, we also have a very real

enemy in the demonic forces. Because I don't know if you know this, but the world is not just stuff. There is more than what you can just see with your eyes. There is a good thing happening in this world, and there is a spiritual evil happening in this world. And we have all three of those things

working against the mission of the church. But yet we are still called to contend for the faith, even as opposition arises. Amen? Amen. But I'll tell you this, of all the problems that Christianity and the church face in our global mission,

some of the worst problems come from within. And I think Jesus knew this was going to happen. That's why in his final prayer, right before he went to the cross, do you know what the main thesis of his final prayer was, was for unity among his believers. It was for unity among the church that we'd be one in both his love and his truth. But ever since the earliest days of Christianity, people have been twisting the faith

into something that was not meant to be, something they wanted to be, rather than what Christ intended it to be. And the book of Jude confronts this head on. So would you go ahead and turn to the book of Jude, I'll give you a clue.

It's the second to the last book of the Bible. Go ahead and turn to Jude. If you want to use the Bibles we provided, that's on page 1308, because as we are called to contend, what Jude is going to remind us of today is this,

that the fight is now. It's not later, it's not after you graduate high school, it's not when you're older, it's not when your kids are out of the house, the fight is now. 1308 is the page if you want to use the Bibles we provided. As we are going to see today, Jude's call to contend for the faith. Now we'll talk about the man Jude in just a moment, but this is a

letter that he wrote. We don't know the exact context, but it seems to be an open letter to all Christians, maybe a little special emphasis on Hebrew Christians, Jewish people who had come to faith in Jesus, but either way, Jude writes to give us some important principles about what it means to fight, or the word he uses, contend,

to contend for the faith, even as opposition arises, and even as we face some of that from within our own ranks. Now, if you're there, you probably noticed that Jude is a short letter. There's no chapters, there's only verses. And today we're going to look at verses one to four.

So hopefully you are there now. With that, I would ask that if you are able, would you please stand for the reading of God's word?

Would you hear the word of the Lord,

the letter of Jude, verses one to four. Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ, may mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. 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, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

This is God's Word. Remain standing.

Let's pray.

We'll continue.

Let's pray.

Father of glory, we ask on this day that you would help us to know your word more fully, that we might fight the right fight, the one that's right before us, that we'd contend for the faith. So please, would you send the Holy Spirit

to continue to lead and guide us here and now, for it's in Jesus' name that we pray these things. And everyone said, amen, amen. Go ahead and have a seat. All right, I have to ask, when we talk about Jude, who immediately thought of the Beatles song, Hey Jude?

Let me see. I just wanted to see who's old in the house. Some of the Gen Zers are like, what are the Beatles? So as we kick off this series, let me give you one main thought to get us through this passage here today, and it's this. That we are to contend for the faith because the fight is now.

The fight is now.

I'm no longer a youth pastor, but in my days when I was a youth pastor, you'd be surprised, or maybe you wouldn't be surprised, how many teenagers said they loved Jesus, but they also said they'd get serious about their faith later. I'm here to tell you then then with all due respect you don't love

Jesus. You love the idea of Jesus but if Jesus is somebody that you say you know and you also get at the same time put off till later then you don't know Jesus. We are called to contend because the fight is now. Let me say it again for those in the back. We contend for the faith now

now

This letter starts out like most ancient letters It begins with the author and his title the passage starts off like this by saying verse 1 Jude a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. That's not who was written to that's who it was written by So I know that probably many of us don't immediately see it But Jude Jude or actually probably his Hebrew Aramaic name was probably more like Judah but Jude was a brother of Jesus Christ a blood brother of Jesus the gospel tells

us that Jesus had four brothers and Jude's here says that he is the brother of James who's James there's no qualifiers given because this is the one and only James who is the current leader of the church based out of Jerusalem who was also the brother of Jesus, making Jude as well. But did you notice that Jude is so humble? He doesn't call himself the brother of Jesus.

He calls him his servant. This shows us a lot, not just about Jude's character, but about the tone of the letter that we're about to read. It's genuine, it's humble. He is not saying, hey, listen to me because I'm Jesus' brother, y'all.

He's like, I'm like you. I serve Jesus. So let's talk about how we can live out our faith more fully. Because I have to say this to you, it's amazing how well a conversation can go with people when you level with them,

rather than immediately trying to exert your authority.

Jude comes out and he does have authority.

He's the brother of the Savior of the world. But he says, I'm his servant. Now listen, Jude has some strong words for Christians, but he starts by acknowledging that he is a servant of Christ, but also by offering up words of blessing. Verse 2, may mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

What a beautiful blessing. Remember that, because we'll be using that during this series. So now that the introductions are set and the tone is now set, we'll see how these opening verses of Jude calls us to contend for the faith and to do so with a sense of urgency that is lost among many American Christians. Jude says there's something real going on and we need to attend to

it right now by contending for the faith. He tells us to be unified, to be aware, and to be holy. Unified, aware, and holy. Let's look at the first one. The fight is now, so we are to be unified. It is very simple.

It is very, very simple. The church is to be unified. Jesus himself said a house divided cannot stand. As a pastor, I will tell you now that my strongest words are not for lost sinners. My strongest words are for Christians who sow discord in the church. Jude, following his brother's call, Jesus' call, he wants unity.

In verse 3, listen to how Jude appeals to their shared faith and their unified beliefs for the grounds of his letter. He addresses them as beloved, reminding them that they are objects of God's love. Christians, this is a just an aside. When we come here and we worship and we declare that we love God, did you know that if you are a believer and God loves you, that when we stand here and worship and we declare our great love for God, do you know that God has also declared his great love for you?

You are an object of God's love. So he addresses them as beloved. Verse three, 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. So Jude is first like, hey,

I first wanted to write and just talk about how awesome Jesus is and how much we love him together. That's what I wanted to write, but there's something going on right now that I need to address, so listen to what I have to say.

But before he does that, he starts with the unity

that Christians are supposed to have. In verse three, if you notice, he talks about our common salvation and our faith once delivered. Our common salvation, referring to our common Savior, Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead. And then Jude says that we are content for the faith, if you have

your Bibles make sure you see this here, content for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Saints just simply meaning fellow Christians. Uh-oh, modern day Christians. The faith that was once for all delivered to the faith. We are to have the same faith that Jude had. The faith does not change.

It does not change based on culture. It does not change based on new societal norms or scientific discovery. We have the one faith, the true faith, that was handed down from Jesus himself to the apostles to the early church, which has now been in succession up until now. We don't get to change the faith because we think we're so enlightened. It is the one faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. We are to have the same ethics, same theology, and same as Jesus. And our fight for the faith will fail if we are not unified in this.

So, let me say something here that may be a little scandalous for some people. This is why I think creeds and confessions are a good thing for the church. Not because they replace Scripture, hear me, they do not. Not because they're perfect, they most certainly are not. But what they do is they help ensure that the proper way to understand scripture is passed down through the ages.

Because the Bible and the scripture is a lot like numbers. You can make numbers say anything you want them to say, whether or not it's the actual real answer. And with the Bible, you can pull things out of context and you can certainly misapply his teachings, especially around love.

That is one of the biggest ways that our current culture, especially modern day Christians, are twisting the gospel is that we are misrepresenting what God's love truly is and how we are to love others. You can make numbers say whatever you want to do if you ignore the equations,

and you can make the Bible say whatever you want if you ignore the context. But creeds and confessions, what they do is they help to ensure that the true and pure message of scripture doesn't get warped by heretical teachers, by changing times, or new generational trends. At Peace Church, we hold, this is the set of creeds that we hold too, it's called the

Three Forms of Unity. Hatterberg Catechism, Belgic Confessions, and Canons of Door. Again, not because they're perfect and not because they replace scripture. They are subservient to scripture. They're not perfect, the scriptures are, but they are helpful tools to guide the teachings of the Bible through the church into the generations that are to come when

pastors and elders change hands to the next generations. We need to be unified in what we believe about our common salvation so that we can contend for the unchanging faith that was once for all delivered to the Saints. But before we move on, I need to ask an obvious question. What does it actually mean to contend for the faith? Well, I think the answer lies in the word contend. Surprise, surprise. So, Bible study time. Despite the English word contend being used twice in Jude,

the original Greek word that Jude uses here is a word that we only find once throughout the original manuscripts of the Bible. Here's the definition. The Greek word, the Greek verb that Jude uses for contend describes, listen to these words, it describes vigorous and determined effort, a struggle or contest, it conveys the idea of striving with intent, focus and dedications. Okay Christians in the house, let me challenge you for a moment. Don't let me challenge you, challenge yourself.

Do any of those words describe your faith? Vigorous, determined, striving with intent focus. I think it is both safe and sad to say that many Christians are not contending for the faith. They're comfortable in the faith. Or worse, they're complacent.

And this is why Jude, before anything else, he's calling us to stand unified, and then he's gonna call us to mission and call us to address the problem, which he does here now. He goes on to identify the immediate problem.

This is the second thing. The fight is now, so we need to be aware. Yes, be unified, it's mission critical. We will not succeed if we are not unified, but we need to be awake to what's happening. And here's where the Bible begins to say things that I think are increasingly offensive to our modern ears. So my friends, here's your trigger warning. Let's look at the first part of

verse four. If you're unfamiliar with the Bible, when we say 4a or 4b, we're talking about the first part of the scriptures. So verse 4a is the first part of verse 4. It says this, for certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of God. And so we are now getting to the crux of the matter for why Jude has written his letter. We must wake up and contend for the faith. Did I read this right? Because ungodly people have crept in.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a second. Jude, I thought the church was supposed to be a hospital for the broken, not a museum for the saints. Shouldn't we welcome ungodly people were coming to church. We want that to happen.

Amen.

We want lost sinners. We want people who don't know God to come into the church to hear the gospel message and to believe in the name of Jesus. We want that to happen. That's not what Jude is referring to here. There's a deeper problem.

When Jude says people who have crept in, he's not talking about people who just come and attend church. Everyone's welcome to do that. He's talking about people who call themselves Christians and who are part of the church, maybe even leaders or teachers. The problem is that these people have begun to pervert the grace of God. That is as Jude will describe. They're using grace as an excuse to satisfy and sanction sin. And Jude is like, if you lose grace, you've lost it all. Even if the people who are doing it call themselves Christians. He's saying we need to contend for the faith, the

faith that was delivered all. Because there's people who are within our ranks who are twisting the faith. So we need to be aware. But let me just say one thing real quick. He's not saying, therefore go on a witch hunt and find out who the heretics are. I think the first call is to look in the mirror and make sure that you're not one of those. Because the notion here, as we'll get into this letter, the notion here is that what was increasingly being shown is that there was a massive disconnect between what people people said they believed and how they lived. Meaning, meaning Sunday morning

there were one type of person and then on the job site there were another type of person. Meaning they were one type of person at church, another type of person online. This is not a call to go on a witch hunt. This is the first to call to reflect in the mirror and then ensure that the faith is being made pure among all. But take note of Jude's word choice here.

Ungodly people who pervert the grace of God. Now pervert is a strong word here, and it does lean into the nuance of what Jude says is happening, but the word simply means to change the position of something, to reinterpret.

What had happened is there were people in the church who were taking grace and they were misapplying it, they were reinterpreting, they were changing its position of what it means. So what is grace? Great question. Very simply, I'd say it like this. Grace is how you are saved. You are saved by grace. Grace is getting what we do not deserve salvation but God gives it to us he graces it to us through our faith in Jesus Christ this is the gospel my friends that when we

call upon the name of Jesus and believe that he rose from the dead we are saved not because God owes us or because we found some magic formula but because Jesus Christ died on the cross in our place paying for our sin and when we believe God chooses, graces us to apply Christ's sacrifice to our debt of sin. This is grace. It's God's gift to us.

It calls us out of our sin and into a living relationship with the living God where Christ has now become the Lord of our life, leading us into the life that God has designed for us, how we are to live both before him and in our relationship with him. But what these people were doing was taking grace, taking God's love and forgiveness, and using it as an excuse to remain in their sin, as a license to do whatever they wanted. They were perverting grace into an excuse to sanction whatever they desired, what God

called sin. It's almost like they were saying, we're saved by grace, therefore we can do whatever we want because God loves us. It's almost like they were saying,

Jesus loves us just where we are at and exactly how we are, or how we might say it today, Jesus loves me for me, and there's nothing about me that needs to change. You're not gonna find that in the Bible anywhere.

This is what worldly and ungodly people say. We think because God loves and forgives, that means we can do whatever we want, and therein lies the problem. So again, rather than going on a witch hunt, let's first look in the mirror. Let's first be aware of our own life and actions to make sure that our life and our doctrine line up. Because people who call themselves Christians

need to be pursuing holiness, and that's the last thing we'll look at. The fight is now, so we need to be holy. The verse finishes, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I know we have kids in the room and I'm thankful for it, so I'll try to keep this PG. Here's the definition of what the Bible means by sensuality, edited for audience purposes. The word refers to unrestrained, shameless behavior, often associated with sexual excess or moral depravity. In the New Testament, it's people who give themselves

to their own personal desires rather than giving themselves to God's Holy Spirit. And Jude is saying there are people like that within the church. And it shows because their lives do not align with a true faith that was handed down once for all.

So here's the rub and here's the truth bomb and here's something that I'll probably get some emails about. Not everyone who calls themselves a Christian is a Christian. Pastor Ryan, you can't say that. That's way too judgmental of you. Okay, then you tell me what else we can derive from this passage.

Because it's not just that they've twisted grace, but by doing so, they've even as the passage continues, they've denied our only master and Lord Jesus Christ. How can a person say they're a Christian and also deny Jesus as Lord? There's two ways actually. The first is when they call themselves a Christian,

but they don't live for Christ. If you are a Christian, that means Jesus is your master and Lord. You live for him. That's what it means to be a Christian. Christian just means a little Christ,

that he is our Lord and Master. But also, the other way, maybe a shock to people here, particularly in Peace Church, because we're so innocent here. But there's a fair amount of people who openly say they are a Christian and openly say they do not believe Jesus is the Lord.

In 2022, so pretty recently, in 2022, Ligonier Ministries found that 43% of professing evangelicals, 43% agreed with this statement, Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God. That's almost half.

If that's a shock to you, hate to break it to you, but you live in a bubble. That is the state of Christianity in this world. That's why we take so seriously what we're doing here at Peace Church.

Half, nearly half of professing Christians are like,

sure, Jesus was a great moral teacher, but he's not Lord or God. You see, my friends, this is what happens when a generation stops going to church. This is the fruit of that. When parents chose other things,

when families didn't make church a priority, this is what happens. And we should not be surprised at all. When we stop going to church to hear the word preached, when we stop seeking the Spirit, when we stop training our kids in the way of righteousness and holiness,

when we abandon the faith once delivered all to the saints. This is what happens when we stop contending for the faith, that vigorous determination. The question before us is painfully obvious. Parents and grandparents, are you teaching your kids to contend for the faith?

Dads, do you understand that your house is a training ground for faith?

Do we teach our kids to contend for the faith

or do we teach them to cherry pick the faith? You know what cherry pickers are, right? They'll pick and choose what commandments and teachings of Jesus they want to honor and obey. They'll talk about his love. Oh, we love to talk about his love, but we will not even come close to engaging his call to repent. They'll love Jesus' words against religious people, but completely ignore the fact that Jesus also calls out the crowds. We don't get to cherry pick

which teachings of Jesus we are to follow. Jesus calls us to pick up our cross and follow him. We are called to contend. I don't know about you, but I will trust my life with the one who saved my soul.

So my friends, where are you?

Comfortable, complacent, or contending. I don't know if you've ever been in a fight, but it's kind of an all-or-nothing thing. When you are in a fight, there's not a part of you that's not engaged in what's going on. When we are called to contend for the faith, it is a all-or-nothing endeavor. There's no cherry-picking, there's no half-heartedness. To contend for the faith takes our entire body, our entire spirits. So do you contend for the faith? Do your words and actions contend for or against the faith once delivered for all? See, we live in a world...

I wonder if I should include this part, but I'm just going to. We live in a world where people post their lives online for all to see. Where we go on vacation, when our kids go to prom, what we had for lunch, what we believe about immigration. I'm simply asking you, what are you showing the world? By all means, by all means, share good memories. My son turns 10 today. You better believe I'll be posting pictures of him online. By all means, share good memories.

But I'm telling you, there is too much going on in this world for Christians to do anything other than contend for the faith here and now. To show how faith informs every aspect of our lives, that we are contending for the faith, not just living comfortable lives.

I'm thankful for the comforts that we have in this world. But some of us, that's become the very trap that keeps us from contending for our faith. This is the time to stand and to hold fast to what matters most. So may you contend for the faith because the fight is right now. It's happening here now in your homes, in the world, outside your doors. It's time to contend, to be all in. Contend for the faith because the fight is now.

And before we close up, let me just recognize one thing. I know many of you, I know many of you would say, I don't have the strength to fight right now. And let me just say something to you

with pastor, pastorly love.

You never have the strength to do this. Whether your life is terrible or terrific, you don't have the strength to do this. This is why we have to call on the presence of the Holy Spirit and the power of the name of Jesus Christ. That's where we get our strength to contend. That's where we get our focus. You think he's gonna call you to do this and then leave you alone in the battle. He is right there. He is your strength. Many of us, we just, we fall to our sin without even putting up a fight, without even calling on the name of Jesus.

Trust in the promises of God. Trust in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit and trust in the power of the name of Jesus. Amen? Because we need to contend because the fight is right now. Amen. power of the name of Jesus. Amen? Because we need to contend because the fight is right now. Amen.

Amen.