Contend for the Faith: Uncovering the Truth in Jude

Hello, and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast,

where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to

this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen

you in the word of God.

Now, come along.

Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

All right, let's get into our Bible study tonight.

If you have your Bibles, turn there with me to the Book of Jude.

Who knew that we could spend so much time just on one chapter?

It's one book, but it's also one chapter, 25 verses.

But there's so much here.

And one of the things about the Book of Jude is that there are

some really obscure references that we see that are exclusive to

this book.

Even though he does reference the Old Testament quite frequently,

he does reference even the Jewish tradition and some other Jewish

literature, which we're going to talk about here this evening.

But there's a lot for us to learn.

But to.

To go back and remind ourselves, what is the theme of the

Book of Jude?

It is found all the way back there in verse number three.

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you the common

salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you

that you should earnestly contend for the faith.

And so the whole theme of the Book of Jude is to exhort believers

to contend for the faith.

So let's use it in 2025 language.

He's challenging Christians to fight for the truth.

And the reason being is because the truth is under attack.

And in this case, in this context, in this book, there were

false teachers that had come into the church that were preaching

and teaching and demonstrating ungodly ways.

They were teaching the wrong things.

They were living the wrong way.

And so he says that in verse four, they crept in unawares, so

secretively under the radar.

They came in and they began to lead the people astray from the truth.

And he says, okay, they're ungodly.

And he tells us specifically how they were ungodly and specifically

where they were going astray.

It said that they were using the grace of God.

They were turning or twisting the grace of God into lasciviousness

or sensuality.

And in so doing, they were denying Jesus.

They were denying the deity of Christ by what they were teaching

and by what they were doing.

So I think it's important for us to go back to understand that

so that we can apply what he's been talking about.

So so he says, fight for the faith.

Well, it's not fighting for your preferences, it's not fighting

for your opinion.

It's not fighting for the way that, you know, you think church

should be run.

It's not talking about that.

It's talking about the fighting for the essentials, fighting

for the faith, the gospel.

And, and so he goes on to talk about three groups that were judged

for their rebellion.

He says, so these false teachers are in rebellion.

So this is what's going to happen to these false teachers who

were in rebellion.

And he talked about the Israelites traveling in, out of Egypt

into the wilderness.

They were judged for their rebellion.

The angels that left their own habitation and went into sin.

There were an everlasting judgment in verse 6, verse 7, Sodom

and Gomorrah was punished for their sin of fornication, as it says

there in verse seven.

And, and chasing after the strange flesh, as it says in verse

seven.

And then he goes on to describe more about these false teachers.

He calls them filthy dreamers.

He calls them individuals who defile the flesh.

He calls them individuals who despise dominion or authority.

And they speak evil, evil of dignities or leaders.

They speak evil of leadership.

And he says, hey, the reason why this is wrong is because they're

basically exercising their own flesh as their guide.

And he says, even the angel, verse nine, even Michael the archangel,

when he disputed against the enemy, what did he do?

He didn't use his power, which he had a lot of power, even though

he's not God, he's the most powerful angel.

As it says, they're the archangel.

What did he do at the end of verse nine when he fought against

Satan?

He said, the Lord rebuke thee.

So, so he uses the power of God, the name of God, the truth of

God in his defense.

And so that tells us how we contend for the faith, how we fight

for the truth.

We fight for the truth and the power of God and the word of God

and the strength and the direction of the Spirit.

So he goes on further and, and last week we talked about the, the

three different paths that these false teachers took.

I'm giving you guys a summary, uh, so hopefully you guys can appreciate

a, a five minute Jude summary.

Three ways.

The way of Cain.

What was the way of Cain?

The way of Cain was the faithless path to religion, empty

religion, man centered religion.

Um, the way of Cain was, hey, I'm gonna try to worship God the

way that I wanna worship instead of the way that God told

me to worship.

So there's the way of Cain.

And then we saw that there was the, the heir of Balaam, which was

for fleshly reward, for, for financial gain, for compromising

the truth when it came to selling ourselves for the almighty

dollar, so to speak, in our culture today.

Um, and then he went on to talk about the gain sayings of core,

which was basically this.

They were, they were individuals who were trying to take

authority, inappropriate authority.

Remember what Korah did?

Korah came to Moses and said, hey, Moses, I know that God instituted

you and Aaron as the leaders, but you guys do too much.

We need to come alongside and we need to take control and help

you.

Right.

In the guise of helping, they were coming to hurt.

Uh, so he says these are all tendencies of false teachers.

And so we look out for those things.

We, we keep our eyes open.

And he talked about the danger of that.

He says, these individuals who do this, they're spots in your feast

of charity.

They're.

They're hindrances to your love, they're hindrances to your

growth.

And he goes on to give a bunch of examples.

Clouds without water, um, they're carried about with the wind.

Trees without fruit, um, so he says, they're, they're empty, they're

hip, they're hypocrites, they're fruitless.

They, they come forward with the, you know, sounding of the truth.

But yet at the end of the day, there, there's emptiness.

Verse 13 tells us that.

So all of that to say, we're in verse 14.

He's going to continue now to talk about the certainty of the judgment

upon these certain men.

So in context, if the certain men that are preaching and teaching

false teachings within the church.

And so verse 14, he says, and Enoch, also the seventh from Adam,

prophesied of these, saying, behold, the Lord cometh with ten

thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all and to

convince all that are ungodly among them.

Of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed,

of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken

against him, you might say.

What is he talking about here?

He references Enoch.

Most of you probably know that name, Enoch he's mentioned in Genesis

Genesis 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5.

He is the individual that was caught up into heaven without dying

in Genesis chapter 5.

Genesis 5 · chapter mention

And he's also referenced in Hebrews chapter 11 for his faith.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

So there was in the Jewish culture an ancient book of Enoch.

It was not received as scripture, but it was highly respected

among the Jews and the early Christians.

So there's a big debate Right.

And some of you, I've already heard.

I mentioned the word Enoch.

I've read the Book of Enoch.

That's great.

But we have to understand that it has not been canonized.

We believe that God preserved his Word.

There's a theological term called preservation.

And so we don't believe that God had hid His Word for a time.

And then now we found these new documents.

We believe that the Book of Enoch is not canonized, therefore

it is not the inspired word of God.

But we do know that here Jude references the Book of Enoch.

So the reference of the Book of Enoch now has become inspired

in the word of God.

You say, wait, wait, wait.

That doesn't make any sense to me.

Well, if that doesn't make sense to you, then the three references

that Paul makes to worldly writers would not make sense either.

Paul mentions in Acts 17 and 1 Corinthians and in Titus chapter

Titus 1 · chapter mention

1, References of literature outside of Scripture.

But when it's referenced in Scripture, it now becomes the inspired

word of God.

So what happens here is Jude quotes a prophecy from the Book of

Enoch.

It doesn't mean that the whole Book of Enoch is scripture, but that

this, this portion, this prophecy is.

So Paul quoted pagan poets.

Jude is quoting Enoch.

So what does he say?

He says about this judgment, that.

That God is going to execute judgment upon all, and he's coming

with his saints.

And we.

And we know that this is a reference to the end times.

We know that this is God's ultimate judgment upon the world.

God is judging right and wrong now, obviously.

But if we are honest with ourselves, we can feel maybe that

God is allowing things to happen.

Maybe you've never.

Maybe you've never thought about this, but you're like, hey,

what?

Why?

Why didn't God make it right right now?

Why is God allowing all this evil in the world?

This.

Well, many people call, you know, inequity, whatever you want

to call it.

But the Bible says that God one day is going to make this all

right.

We know that at the end he will.

And so it says that he comes to convince all that are ungodly

among them of all their ungodly deeds.

And so this speaks to this idea of conviction in this quotation.

The Bible says that God is going to judge all of the ungodly.

Now, ungodly here means without God, meaning they don't have

faith.

This isn't talking about Christians who have sinned.

This is talking about the ungodly in rejection.

And so those will be faced with judgment.

Many people take the judgment of God lightly.

You know, you maybe even hear jokes in, in the news or in, in movies

like, oh, you know what?

I've even heard people say, I'm glad to go to hell because that's

where all my friends are.

Folks, that is a misunderstanding of God's judgment

and his righteous indignation against those that are evil.

None of us want God's judgment.

But I will say that all of us deserve God's judgment.

By the way, I think that when we read verse 15, it's easy for us

to say, well, that's what they deserve.

That's what those ungodly people deserve.

Those people that were in rebellion to God, that's what they

deserve.

Let me tell you something folks, here tonight.

The gospel says that all of us deserve what verse 15 says, all of

us deserve it.

From the very beginning, the Bible says, there is none good, no,

not one.

And the Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of the

glory of God.

So we say, so what makes the difference between someone who is

not going to face God's judgment and someone who is going

to face God's judgment?

The Bible says very clearly that it's faith, it's our identity

in Christ.

So when we trust in Jesus Christ, we're not trusting in him

to help us.

We're trusting in him to save us from destruction.

I want you to see a cool passage of scripture that I think

will help us kind of frame in our minds the difference between

someone who is on the side of judgment and who is on the side of

grace.

It's in First John, chapter two, not far away if you turn back

left in your Bibles, probably just a few pages.

First John, chapter two speaks of who we are in Christ and how we

can escape the judgment of God going back, theologically speaking,

all of us deserve God's judgment.

All of us deserve separation.

All of us deserve eternal punishment from him.

But First John, chapter two, verse one says this, my little children.

So.

So John is referencing Christians, those that are in the

faith.

These things write I unto you that ye sin not so.

So John says, guys, I'm writing you these things so that

you don't sin.

And all of us would say, that sounds good.

But then he says something interesting.

And if any man sin, meaning this, you shouldn't want to sin,

you should strive not to sin.

But the reality is, is that you will sin.

So what happens?

Well, now we're facing God's judgment again.

No, what does it say?

It says, and if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father.

Who's the advocate?

Jesus Christ, the righteous.

It's Jesus's righteousness that allows us to not face the judgment

of God.

And so it's not a matter of good people versus bad people.

I want to be very clear about that.

I think a lot of times we think, well, my goods outweigh my

bad, so therefore God's not going to judge me.

That's not what it's about.

The Bible says if you've offended one sin, you've offended

them all.

And so I think so many times we wrap up our Christian life with

pride because we're like, hey, we aren't those bad people over there

that, that God's going to judge.

And we, and we put a label on whoever we think is really bad.

And it depends on who you are.

Right?

You know, some of us have our pet sins that we hate, and we should

hate sin.

But the truth is, is that scripture says very clearly here

that the distinction between those that are judged and those that

are not judged, it's those who have faith in Jesus Christ and have

his righteousness on their account.

And Jesus is their advocate, their, their lawyer, so to speak.

And so think of like a throne room or not a throne room, let's

say a courtroom.

God the Father is sitting up there in the judgment seat and, and

we're standing before him, Guilty, guilty as charged.

But then you have the advocate, Jesus, he comes in the

scene, he says, hey, look, I paid the price.

I took the payment, I took the cross.

I'm the one who knew no sin, and he was the one that took that

sin for us.

So therefore we can celebrate that we are not part of verse 15.

We are not the ones that are going to receive the judgments upon

us, but we are gonna be the ones that can celebrate the truth

of Jesus's righteousness, not celebrating our goodness.

Because sometimes what can happen is Christians can get together

and we can start talking about how good we are and how bad they

are, but the truth is, is that we need to talk more often about

how bad we are and how good God is and how much he has changed

us.

So anything that you do in your life that reflects anything

that I do, that I reflect Christ in it's glory to him, it's

glory to his power, and it's his transformation in my life, not

my own.

I didn't clean myself up.

My flesh still wants what my flesh wanted before I got saved.

I, I, some of you might look at me like what your flesh wants,

what your flesh wants and the Bible speaks of this idea that we

die to the flesh.

And now we allow the Spirit to guide us.

And the Spirit guiding us allows us to respond in righteousness.

But again, it's not our righteousness.

It's the Spirit working through us.

And so I.

I think that that's so important for us to understand.

So.

So think of somebody arrested for a crime.

It is Jesus who breaks the shackles of our guilt.

And so we're back to Jude, verse 15.

He says they've committed these ungodly works.

And he gets specific here, and he says of all their hard speeches.

What's he talking about here?

They're.

They're.

They're hard speeches.

I think that that's important to.

To see because we.

We think of a hard speech as like, man, I got a.

I got a big speech I have to give here.

That's.

That's not what he's talking about here.

He's talking about their.

Their.

Their harsh speech.

It's harsh.

It's.

It's grading.

So he's characterizing these individuals that.

In rebellion to God.

And so he says harsh speech.

And that harsh speech allows them.

I like Spurgeon.

Some of you know, Spurgeon.

Charles Spurgeon, great prince of preachers there in England.

I like this quote that he said.

He said, you know, the sort of people alluded to here.

Nothing ever satisfies him.

Satisfies them.

They're discontented even with the gospel.

The bread of heaven must be cut into three pieces and served

on dainty napkins, or else they cannot eat it.

And very soon their soul hates even this light bread.

There is no way by which a Christian man can serve God so as

to please them.

They will pick holes in every preacher's coat.

And if the great high priest himself were here, they would find

fault with the color of the stones of his breastplate.

Spurgeon said that in a sermon.

And, man, that's pretty strong word.

So.

By the way, that wasn't Pastor Josh.

That was Charles Spurgeon.

If you have any problem with him, uh, you can take it up with

him in heaven when you meet him one day.

But.

But the truth is, is that sometimes that's what happens in

our life.

We.

We have all these great things, but yet we can't see the

blessing in the midst of the.

The problem.

And, and so they.

They.

They.

They managed themselves to get to a place where they were trying

to flatter people.

These certain men, in this case, knew how to talk smooth ways

and, And.

And flattering Words, they would say anything good or bad, to

get an advantage, to get up.

You know, you've ever met someone like that, they'll tell you

anything as long as it's them on top.

So you would say, so how do we be different?

How, how, how do we distinguish ourselves in a different

manner than this?

And then how do we watch out for this?

Well, he gives us what we should do.

How do we keep ourselves in this way?

Because that's the way culture goes.

That's the norm.

That's the world.

Verse 17, he says, but beloved, again, referencing Christians,

referencing believers.

Remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles

of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Remember what you've been taught about the truth.

We are to be different.

We are to remember what Jesus taught.

The word of God is always the answer to danger and division within

the church.

It's always the word of God.

That's what he's saying here.

Jude is saying, hey, you know what?

You know how you be different?

You know how you're different than these false teachers?

You know how you're different than the world?

You know how you're different than the ungodly?

You center everything and remember the word.

You remember scripture.

So we can allow divisions to happen.

We can allow conflict to happen.

We can even allow attacks to the truth happen.

But at the end of the day, what we have to do is we have to

recenter ourselves in scripture.

More and more, I am learning that if scripture doesn't mention

it, I'm going to tell you, if someone comes up and says, hey, what

do you think about this?

Sometimes I'm even cautious to say what I think about it because

if scripture doesn't mention it, I don't know.

Whoa, whoa.

You can't say you don't know.

I don't know.

Scripture doesn't mention it.

So we're not sure.

You can believe what you want to believe about that.

But.

And it's fun sometimes to have a gospel imagination.

I like that, by the way.

I do like that.

But we have to be very careful when we take anything outside of

scripture and make that the importance.

The gospel is the gospel for a reason.

And you know, I was listening to another Spurgeon.

I wasn't listening to it.

Spurgeon.

I was reading Spurgeon's sermon.

Dictated to me.

So it wasn't his voice.

But he was saying that when a church gets tired of hearing the

gospel is an indication that they are not where they need to be.

He said sometimes churches will get like, hey, why are you preaching

the gospel, we're all saved.

We all know the truth of Jesus.

Teach us something else.

Everything is based in the gospel.

Therefore, if we want to talk about morality, if we want to talk

about conflict resolution, if we want to talk about husband and

wife relationships, if we want to talk about defending the faith,

it all goes back to the gospel, Jesus.

If.

If we don't have Jesus and Jesus resurrected, what's the point?

We're just like every other false religion out there.

And so it's Jesus at the heart of these things.

And Jesus marks it with grace and truth and compassion.

And so the apostles had warned the early church that this would

happen.

Verse 18, how that they told you there should be mockers in the

last time.

So what is he saying here?

He says, don't be shocked that people are mocking Christ.

I think so much we're.

We're so shocked at the evil of this world that it takes us back

too far to the point where we're off guard.

Expect.

I know this isn't revolutionary, but expect unsaved

people to act like unsafe people.

Expect complainers to complain.

Expect people that are filled with hate to act in hate.

That's what the Bible says.

And so we don't get shocked when the world is that way.

I mean, we can turn away from sin and we can recoil from sin, which

we should.

But there is a point in our minds where we know the Bible says

that in the last time, which, by the way, we are in the last time.

And someone says, wait, you believe we're at the very last days?

Maybe.

But the Bible actually teaches theologically that from the moment

of Jesus resurrection, we have been in the last days, and we're

just getting closer and closer.

So just as it was true 2000 years ago here with Jude, it's true

today.

So there will be mockers in the last times who should walk after

their own ungodly lust.

You see a theme with these guys that he's talking about.

It always goes back to they're walking their way.

They're walking the fleshly path, the ungodly path.

So he says, don't be shocked with this.

A passage of scripture that maybe some of you are familiar with

is in second Timothy, chapter four.

You could turn there with me if you'd like.

It's again, another prophecy of what it'll be like in the last

times.

And I think that when you read this, or when you listen to me read

this, you will see where we are.

Second Timothy, chapter four, verses three and four.

For the time will come when they people will not endure sound

doctrine.

So, so what is he saying here?

He says there will be a day which in this case Paul was talking

to Timothy and he says in your day, so it's even maybe worse now

that people will not want to endure or listen to or accept sound

teaching.

Says, but after their own lust.

There's a theme there.

Right back to their lust shall they heap to themselves, meaning

they'll, they'll bring in, they'll attract, they will basically

hunger after heap to themselves teachers having itching

ears.

And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be

turned unto fables, meaning this people will bring in and be

attracted to what they want to hear.

And there will be people, there always will be people that

will tell them what they want to hear.

Right?

So like if I got up and I, I, what I could do is this, I could

say, hey everybody, we're going to take a survey.

Surveys aren't a bad thing.

We're actually going to be doing a survey this Sunday about

opportunities for you to get involved here at the church.

But if I, if I said, okay, let's, I'm going to take a survey

and I want to hear what you guys want to hear preached to you.

And okay, I get all these opinions and they come in and okay,

now I want to ask you what you don't want to have preached to you.

And I get all those opinions, in I go, okay, I know that this area

right here is something that I can't preach because everyone's going

to get upset.

So what do I do?

I take that off the table.

I don't necessarily out and out deny it, but what I do is I'll

just preach the stuff that's palatable for the church.

And that sounds good and it might even be, it might even be truthful

to a, to a degree.

But when we don't tell the whole story, we, we are, we are essentially

lying.

Have you ever taught your children that?

If our kids come into our house and hey, so what happened here?

And they tell you something, is that the whole truth?

If it's not the whole truth, it's a lie.

And, and, and so there's that idea of sometimes we always think

that false teachers and people that are trying to divide the church

are going to come in with like, you know, a pitchfork and horns

and come in and ah, we're gonna get you and we're terrible

people.

No, it's coming in, in a way, the way of Cain, the, the, the, the

heir of Balaam, it could be any of those paths.

But what we can see there in second Timothy chapter four is that

there is going to be a day.

And he says, but Watch thou, verse 5.

But watch thou in all things.

Endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full

proof of the ministry.

For I am now ready to be offered in the time of my departure

is at hand.

And so we have Paul saying, be ready, just do what you need to do.

And as Christians, that's what we have to do in our society.

We have to recognize the difference between a truth and a

lie, deception.

And scripture verse 19, they.

These be they who separate themselves.

That's an interesting way to put it.

They separate themselves.

Essentially it means this.

They themselves cause the separation.

It's not that they're saying like, oh, we're separating from these

good people.

It's that they come in and they're characterized by division.

So wherever they go, division happens.

And, and if you read Jesus's high priestly prayer in John 17,

it's, it's Jesus's prayer for the church.

What?

Jesus could have prayed a lot of things, and he did.

But one of the things that were at the top of his prayer was

this, that they be unified, that they be together.

Um, we see what was the mark of a healthy church in Acts chapter

two.

They were in one accord.

And so what does Satan do?

Satan wants the opposite of what God wants.

So therefore he wants to cause division.

So he says these individuals that cause division are sensual,

having not the spirit.

So there, there we get to the deepest, darkest problem.

There's no spirit.

There's no spirit involved.

There's no indwelling of the spirit.

There's no guidance of the spirit.

So what we can see is this, and I think this is important for

us to see here this evening.

If we are unsaved, there's a person in our midst that's unsaved.

We should expect them to act unsaved and therefore living without

the Spirit.

Right?

I mean, that's, that's the distinction of a believer.

A believer is someone who has the spirit living within them.

But the Bible also speaks of individuals who have the spirit living

within them.

So that, so that's called the indwelling of the spirit.

But there's also individuals that are not living filled with the

spirit.

Meaning I have the spirit living within me, but I've suppressed

the conviction of the spirit so much.

The Bible says quench not the spirit.

Okay, quenching the spirit means the spirit convicts, I reject.

And there's a time when I have rejected the Spirit so much in my

life.

I've quenched the Spirit so much in my life that Paul speaks

of what's called a seared conscience.

And when we have that seared conscience, we can get to a place

in our life that we are living still in the family of God, in our

position, but living away from the Spirit because the Spirit has

no longer has any meaning to us.

And we can be living just like this.

And so what we can see is this.

There are Christians who are living outside of what a Christian

should be living like.

And so I think that that's something that we need to be aware

of when it comes to our own life.

We, we, we have to take a look at ourselves, take a look at our

own life.

So I, I, I read the New Testament and you know what I naturally

do?

I naturally put myself in the shoes of the apostles.

That's what we, of course, we're, we're the star of the show.

We're the best.

But often I, I have tried now, I should say, to read the New Testament

through the eyes of a Pharisee.

Am I that guy?

Am I the Pharisee?

Am I the one that's living outside of these truths of scripture?

And so I think the first step, and we're gonna look just at the

first step.

There's actually three steps in how to contend for the faith.

We're gonna just look at the first step tonight.

I'm gonna summarize it and then we're gonna close out verse

number 20.

Look inward.

The, the first thing that we do when it comes to being ready to

contend for the faith is not to start looking at all the people

on the outside and going, okay, how many people can I go after?

You know, we're gonna storm em.

The truth is, is that what did Jesus teach when, when we're.

The Bible never says don't judge completely.

It, it does speak against condemnation.

I have no right to condemn anybody.

But the Bible does say, when you're going to make a judgment call

about a believer and come and exhort them, pick the beam out of

your eye before you try to go after their spec.

That's not saying never try to help another Christian.

That's a lot of people take that out of context.

They say, well, you know what?

You shouldn't go around and try to help people in their sin because

you've got a beam in your eye.

No, Jesus is teaching, hey, get yourself ready to go where you're

walking in the Spirit.

So that you can help other people.

We should help other people.

And so what we do first when we're going to contend for the faith

is we look inward.

So, so that's what verse 20 is.

But ye beloved, referencing now the Christians again, building

up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.

And so what he says is this.

He says, keep yourselves, verse 21.

Keep yourselves, allow yourselves to live in the love of

God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal

life.

That is probably not the first thing we would think about when we

think about contending for the faith.

He doesn't say hey, go and go to Bible college and make sure you

have all the arguments.

He doesn't say hey you know what, go out and start attacking

people.

He says first and foremost, inwardly, where are you at spiritually?

Build up yourselves on your most holy faith.

Build your Christian faith.

Grow in your faith.

Pray in the Holy Ghost.

Meaning pray asking God in the Spirit to allow you to live in the

Spirit.

Keep yourselves in the love of God.

Be reminded.

Remember the love of God.

Look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

Meaning you look to him, you try to be more like Christ.

We know that God loves even the ungodly.

Romans chapter five tells us that.

It says, for when we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ

died for the ungodly.

And you'd say, I don't think God sent Jesus to die for the ungodly.

Romans 5, verse 8.

Romans 5:8

But God commended his love towards us and that while we were

yet sinners, Christ died for us.

It says it right there.

God loved us enough to die for us even when we were ungodly.

Not so that we would stay ungodly, but that we would live in

that transformative life.

And so what does he say?

Go back to the love of God.

It means to keep yourself in constant reminders of God's ever

present love in our life.

The Bible does say to love the ungodly.

The Bible does not say to accept the ungodly.

The Bible says to demonstrate our love for the ungodly.

It doesn't mean that we should build up the ungodly in their ungodly

ways.

So therefore what we have to do is we have to be prepared to profess

and to live out the love of Christ to those around us.

And so the one way that we can build up our faith is to be reminded

about what Christ has done for us.

The Gospel.

We see their prayer.

We say that we see there the reminder of God's Mercy.

And so this is the faith that Jude was talking about all the way

back in verse three.

Remember, in verse three, he says, contend for the faith.

You're contending for this very thing that you're trying to

grow in the truth of God.

Another way to keep yourself in the love of God is to confess

your sins before God.

Right?

First John, chapter one, verse nine.

If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our

sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So part of our prayer lives is to confess before God where we have

fallen short.

God already knows where we are.

God already knows that you've fallen short.

The word confession means to just say the same thing.

To agree.

To agree on my sin before God.

God to agree.

I know my sin is wrong.

I know that I've walked away from you.

I know that I've allowed myself to turn my ways to the flesh.

And so therefore, Lord, I want you to restore me back into your

fellowship, not restore salvation.

But the Bible does say to restore the joy of our salvation.

And so the Holy Spirit may help us pray by giving us the right

words to say we should pray to the.

By the way, biblically speaking, I think this is a controversial

topic, but I think I can show you scripture to talk about this.

I believe the model prayer is to pray to the Father in the power

of the Spirit in the name of Jesus.

Right.

I believe that's the path that we should take.

Now, some people say, can I pray to Jesus?

That's a kind of an interesting topic.

I believe you can.

I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

But I believe when Jesus was asked, how should you pray?

He says, to thou, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be

thy name.

So we say we address the Father through the power of the Spirit,

verse 20, praying in the Holy Ghost, and then obviously in the

name of Jesus Christ.

And the way it.

It doesn't mean that your prayer is actually more magical when

you say in Jesus's name at the end.

It just means that you're praying in the fact that you could

only approach God in his throne room because of the blood

of Jesus Christ.

So someone says, well, I didn't say Jesus at the end of my

prayer.

Is that prayer not valid?

No, you're praying on the fact that you're in.

You're in the standing in the family of God because of Jesus.

And so I think that's important for us to understand there

in that essence of prayer.

And so the third way I think that we can keep ourselves in the

love of God is that we just keep our eyes fixed on the Gospel.

We keep our eyes fixed, as it says in verse 21, the mercy of our

Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

That's what he's saying there.

That would be a fancy way to say your salvation.

The mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

Eternal life is salvation.

John 3:16.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,

that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting

life.

So it's meditating upon living in celebrating, proclaiming the gospel.

And then he's going to say, yeah, there, there are other steps.

You look inward first, but then you gotta look outward.

And that's what the next step, step is to look outward.

And, and ultimately at the end of all of this, it is to look upward.

And so for, for the, this week and next week, we're gonna look at

those three steps.

To look inward, to look outward, and then to look upward.

And that is really how we contend for the faith.

It's not about having a bunch of conflicts.

You know, there are Christians who enjoy confrontation and to, to

the point where it's like, okay, I'm gonna cause confrontation.

And the Bible says, no, be led in the Spirit.

God will get.

If you're walking in the Spirit, God will give you the discernment

to know when to share your faith and when not to share the faith.

There is a time and a place not to say something.

We know that because Jesus didn't say the same thing every single

time he dealt with people.

There were times where Jesus did walk away.

If you remember where he was preaching there in Nazareth, his

own town.

They weren't receiving him because they, they, they were not

respecting him because that's where he was from.

So Jesus didn't say, well, I'm going to stay in Nazareth till everyone

hears me.

Jesus moved and, and so there is a time and a place, Paul did that.

Paul left certain places and said, you know what?

God's work isn't here anymore.

The Holy Spirit sometimes closes the door.

And so if we're, if, if we're going to look at this from the perspective

of as a church, we're going go into all the world.

It's the Holy Spirit guiding us to say, okay, this is a gospel

opportunity.

Maybe this isn't a gospel opportunity.

I can still live out the gospel, but maybe this isn't a confrontational

opportunity.

So the point I'm trying To make is don't just go out looking

for a fight.

If you live the gospel, the fights will find you.

Let me tell you, if you live long enough and you live for the

truth of Christ, and you proclaim the love of Christ and you

proclaim the word of God, there will be enough conflict for

you, enough to contend for the faith.

And.

And it will come in different routes.

It will come in different ways.

And so the book of Jude is all about how can we contend for the

faith?

And how can we be the ones prepared to go out?

You, you can't contend for the faith.

If you go back and look at verse 15, 16 and say, you know what?

Ooh, I am someone who has grading speech.

I am someone that's a murmur, a complainer walking after my own

lust, someone speaking swelling words.

Okay, There are some times in our life where we need to reinspect

what we're doing, but that's the grace of God, because all of

us, all of us deserve what we were talking about in verse 15, the

judgment of God.

But yet we still have that grace.

And so it's never too late.

It's never too late to come back to him.

You know how I know it's not too late?

Because you're right here taking it in breath.

It's not too late.

Okay, we can continue on.

God's gonna give us another day, Lord willing.

If not, hey, then.

Then we're with him in glory.

Uh, so.

So we're gonna look at more.

We're gonna look at verse number 22 next week, which actually,

actually has.

Has been misinterpreted in many ways.

Uh, I believe specifically, if you look at it from the perspective

of what Jude is talking about here.

Uh, so, so there are.

There.

There is a way that we.

And there's different ways that we deal with people.

There's some people that we need to give compassion to.

There's some people that we need to save with fear, as it says.

There are some people that we need to pull out of the fire.

Um, so.

So there, there.

There are some different paths that we take when we deal with certain

people depending on the Holy Spirit's guidance.

And so that's what we will talk about next week.

I will stop there.

Could love to talk about it more, but we are at our limit tonight,

so appreciate your attention here, contending for the faith.

If you followed along with us here in the study of Jude, I.

I hope that it's been beneficial to you.

If you have any questions about any of this, I will try to

answer the ones that I know and the ones that I don't know.

I will let you know that I will look it up.

After we get through the Book of Jude, we are going to this is

kind of just a a plea for those that, you know, maybe are on

the fence of coming back out for another study.

We are going to be studying the the Book of Philemon and and

that's a book that is not talked about very often, but it's

actually a very, very interesting book, one that I believe

there's a really important message for us to learn there.

So a lot of times left out because of the uniqueness of the

story.

So if you've never heard that or if you have heard it, appreciate

you coming back and studying it together with me.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church

podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

You you would like to find out more information about our church

or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org.

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Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.