Contending For The Faith

Just lift our Bibles around, as is our custom.

Wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad.

Let's say this together say Heavenly Father, I have tuned in tonight and I'm hungry for more of the Word.

I'm living at a time when circumstances are making a demand on my faith, so my faith is going out all the time over situations, and so I need to be fed the Word of God so that my faith will grow and I'll continue to overcome in Jesus' name, amen.

Let's turn to the book of Jude, way back in the back of your Bible, right before Revelation, and we'll read the first three verses and Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, and brother of James to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called mercy under you, in peace and love be multiplied, beloved.

When I gave all diligence to write under you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write under you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints, that you should earnestly contend for the faith.

And so that's what I want to teach you on tonight contending for the faith, contending for the faith.

So Jude is one of the books of the last days.

Second Peter is another one, second Thessalonians is another one.

These are books that of course they were written 2000 years ago, but really the subject they dealt with was the end days, the return of the Lord, the way things would be toward the end, and so we know that Jesus is coming soon.

And when I read the book of Jude, when I read the book of Second Peter, it looks like it could have been written last week.

I mean some of the things that they're talking about and this epistle, which you know, jude was the Lord's brother, james was the Lord's brother At one time.

Jude didn't accept, neither did James.

They didn't accept, that Jesus was a Messiah, their brother.

They'd look related to him as a brother, as an earthly brother, but they learned differently.

And this epistle is written to, is written to believers, to strengthen and encourage them and notice how he starts out mercy, peace and love be multiplied unto you, beloved, see.

So he's talking to Christians to earnestly contend for the faith.

And you know, when you read contend in your concordance, it means to fight, to struggle over as to win a prize.

But I like to go a little deeper here.

I want to read to you from the from the the Saurus, oxford, the Saurus, the word contend means to compete, challenge, vie, contest, strive, struggle, tussle, grapple, wrestle, combat, squabble, skirmish, battle, fight, war, wage war, join, battle, cross swords, cross swords for the faith.

Isn't that amazing?

Lock horns Go head to head, oppose and to clash.

So you know, when I read those words from the Oxford thesaurus you know that's pretty intense.

I think the church needs to wake up and quit being so polite and quit reaching across the aisle and calling Democrats their colleagues.

And I know that God's not a Democrat or Republican.

I love what James said on camera the other day.

He's not a Democrat or Republican, but he does have a side and it's time for us to get on his side.

And that's what we're doing.

We're contending to be on God's side.

God is not neutral over anything, and so it's very.

You know the faith.

Contend for the faith.

Well, yeah, brother, but that's.

You're talking about politics now.

Well, yeah, it's all connected, because politics is coming after our faith.

They're trying to take it, they're trying to take our freedom.

And don't think they're not.

They are lying every day, all day long, and making up complete fabrications and putting it in the newspaper as news.

So listen, folks, we need to contend and just, and all the strength of that language, cross swords, you know, lock horns, go head to head.

I mean, it's going to take more than polite conversation.

We're going to have to get more extreme in our rhetoric and in our actions.

I'm not talking about violent action.

I'm talking about, though, having violent faith, hey Ben.

So why?

Why?

You know the Bible, you know it says, you know we, it just says to contend.

He says I'm exhorting you, encouraging you to earnestly, earnestly, contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints.

So then he goes on after, after that, to tell us in what way, what, what is the reason why we have to contend?

See, there's kind of a hint that for the faith that was once delivered, essentially it must, something must have happened, and this was 2000 years ago.

I mean, there hadn't been hardly any history lived between the, the crucifixion of Jesus, and when Jude was written here.

There hadn't been very many years past.

And look at now, we've gone 2000 years and a whole lot has happened to the church and to the faith.

It's been watered down, it's been lied about.

Are you with me now?

There are people standing in pulpits all across this country and even the world that are preaching falsehood.

And we believers need to contend, we need to oppose with everything that's in us.

Why?

Because in verse 4 there have certain men crept in unawares.

One version says when I, when I read my, I'm in my iPad so I can consult Strong's, it means to alongs unawares, it means to settle in alongside, to lodge stilthily.

So see, they're not out in the, they're not out there, they're in the church.

When I say in the church, I mean in the upper echelons of seminaries, they're in religious colleges.

The Christian, so-called Christian, colleges are no longer Christian.

I mean, you know, there's TCU here in here in Texas and Fort Worth, texas Christian University, where you couldn't get less Christian than TCU.

Something happened, something happened to TCU, something happened to Harvard, something happened to Yale, something happened to Princeton and I tell you it wasn't good and people quit contending for the faith.

So there were certain men and women who have crept in and slipped in side by side with other believers and these people, who were before of old, are deigned to this condemnation.

That word, condemnation there, means crime.

It means crime, it means damnation, it means to go to law judgment, ungodly men and women turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness.

What does that mean exactly?

It means that they they preach a gospel that's permissive and that you can be a homosexual and be a born-again Christian and will know you certainly cannot be.

You cannot practice homosexuality and be a born-again Christian.

You are in sin.

We have more about that in a minute.

Because he touches on that and see there are churches that are that are opening their doors to this type of sin and saying it's perfectly okay.

Well, no, it's perfectly not okay.

It's not ever.

It's never been okay, it's not okay right now.

This is the faith that we have to contend for.

And he said turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, oh well, it's okay if you live with your girlfriend, just we're welcome, everyone it's.

You can have children out of wedlock, no problem.

Listen, we teach people to get married around here.

If you're gonna live together, you need to get married, otherwise separate.

So they're turning the grace of God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord, god and our Lord, jesus Christ.

And he goes on.

He said so.

These certain men have crept in.

I call them creeps, they're ungodly men.

And and so he goes on.

He says.

I would therefore put you in remembrance though you once knew this, you know the church once knew this, but all of a sudden, a lot of the church is forgotten.

How that, the Lord being say, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt after, would destroy them.

That believe not.

What's he talking about there?

Well, he's talking about the 10 spies of the 12 that came back with an evil report.

They died instantly of a plague when they brought that evil report and then, after that, every adult 20 years of age and older died in the wilderness without ever having seen the promised land.

They that was their judgment, and and so they didn't live past the age of 70 to 80 years old.

Psalm 90 talks about if I live by to 70 or if, by reason of of use, 80 years.

You know, I fly away and all this.

Some people think that 70 or 80 is is God's ideal lifespan.

Well, no, it's 120 at least.

At least 70 and 80 was for people that were cursed, that were in punishment, and God destroyed them in the wilderness.

Why?

Because they, they didn't believe God.

And then he goes on to say and the angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation.

He has reserved an everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

A lot of people have the mistaken idea that demons are fallen angels.

They are certainly not, and I believe you don't have to believe what I believe, but I believe that they're basically a demon is nothing but the spirit of a pre-adamic creation.

There was a race of people that lived on the earth before Adam and they were destroyed and their spirits roamed around here and now.

That's what we contend with as demons.

But the angels that fell with Lucifer have all been locked up in chains and they're gonna be unchained, some of them during the great tribulation the Bible talks about that in the book of Revelation and so he's chained them up until the last day.

He's punished them and then, and even as Sodom and Gomorrah and I hear we're talking about the homosexual and the LGBTQ, plus plus P and all the other things that you can put on there even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

So God destroyed those cities and the people in them as an example, and you know, I'm well aware that I could be criticized for this message.

I've been called a hater.

I'm not a hater.

I'm a hater, but I'm a hater, and I'm not a hater Now.

God has made all those sinners as much as Jesus loved them.

I didn't die for them, but Jesus died for all of them, and he made examples of these people and let them know that this is not okay, that this lifestyle is not consistent with salvation.

So, who loves who?

I love you enough to tell you the truth and tell your flesh no, quit giving yourself permission to allow those desires to control you.

That's what the Bible says.

I'm reading out a book of Jude and I'm contending for the faith.

I mean, the faith has been under attack for too long and too many churches are going easy on all this stuff in the hopes of being inclusive, and a lot of them have just forgotten what the Bible says about it.

All right, likewise, like what?

Well, like the people that died, the Jews that died in the wilderness, like the angels that were punished, like the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns that were practicing fornication and homosexuality, and so to me, all of those forbidden things.

Likewise also these filthy dreamers.

So he's talking about these men and women who have crept in unaware.

These filthy dreamers defile the flesh, they despise dominion and speak evil of dignities.

So it gives you some characteristics of these people that we're to guard against.

We're to contend against them, because they've crept into the church and they are perverting the gospel, they're perverting the mission, and we have to confront these people and we can't do it quietly.

It has.

We're gonna have to be a much more forceful voices and actions.

And so he goes on to say these people talking about these creeps.

They speak evil verse 10 of those things which they don't know about but what they know, naturally, is brute beasts and those things they corrupt themselves.

Whoa unto them Whew, boy, that's strong language right there.

Whoa unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward and perished in the gainsaying of Cori.

We'll talk about those three in just a moment.

These, now this, talking about these men and women that have crept in and slipped in, side by side in their rubbing shoulders with the church.

Some of them are in these universities, some of them are in the seminaries, some of them are in the pulpit.

Some of them are in the board of demons.

Some of them are right out here in the pews.

That's who they are.

They're here, they're in the church.

They're not out there.

They're not necessarily.

We're not necessarily talking about these people in Washington DC.

A lot of them are like this, but they're not even in church.

They play like they are.

He says these are spots in your feasts of Agape, while they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear.

So they're spots.

Now that word spots this is the only time it's used in the entire Bible and it is the Greek word spilos.

Now, in other places it talks about spots.

You know God's coming for a church without spot or wrinkled.

That word spot is spilos.

Now, that's used a number of times.

It's used in 2 Peter.

But this word spilos doesn't mean the same thing as spilos.

Spilos just means defiled, it means soiled, it means one who is a disgrace, and that's bad enough.

But listen to what spilos is.

This is the only time it's used in the entire Bible.

These people that have crept in unawares, these people that he said woe unto them, these people are spots in your face of agape.

That word spots is the Greek word spilos, which means a rock or a ledge in the water Upon which ships can have a shipwreck.

You see, they can cause damage.

Spilos, that doesn't necessarily cause damage to you.

It just means that that person is shameful, person needs to quit sinning.

They need to repent.

You know, a spilos can still be a spilos, can still be a Christian.

That's misguided and they need to be restored and corrected.

But a spilos is beyond that.

A spilos is somebody that can cause spiritual shipwreck.

They're just like a hidden ledge or rock under the ocean, where the ocean liner is sailing and all of a sudden, boom.

You've ripped the bottom out of the vessel and now you're going to have a shipwreck, you're going to have a sinking vessel.

This is what it's talking about.

So these are spilos.

They're they're capable of causing shipwreck in the midst of you, while they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear.

Now, listen to what the Bible calls them.

They are clouds without water.

They are carried about of winds.

What winds he talking about?

Winds of doctrine.

They believe every new thing and they're trying to convert you.

They're trying to get you off base.

Trees whose fruit withers without fruit, twice dead.

Now listen to that one.

Twice dead.

How can a tree be twice dead.

Well, the fact is that they were dead.

Then they were born again and now they've turned away from the faith and they are done.

They are dead again.

They are no longer saved.

These people are not going to go to heaven.

They've committed an unpardonable sin.

They've denied the Lord that bought them and they are trying to recruit others.

They're trying to bring people and gain control over them.

They're in the church right now and increasing numbers.

They are twice dead and they've been plucked up by the roots.

When were they plucked up by the roots?

When they denied the Lord the second time.

You know, the first time they were just lost and they got saved To be twice dead.

You were dead the first time.

Now you're dead the second time, born again.

So you're born the first time, born the second time.

These people, then you know they were dead the first time.

Now they're dead the second time.

They're twice dead.

That means they're never going to be restored.

There's no restoring these people.

These are the spilos.

I want to go back over to the spilos now, the ones that are defiled, the ones that are a disgrace.

They still, you can still have hope for them.

They're not totally lost yet.

They're just sinning.

They're doing some things that are wrong.

Maybe they've fallen under the control of the spilos.

I hope you're getting something out of this, because this is what the church has got to do right now.

We have got, we've got to have a mighty revival.

You can't have a revival based on this kind of person inside your church or inside your leadership.

So they're in the church to do damage.

That's my point.

They're in the church to do damage.

These people that are in the Bible schools and in the in the uh, uh, all of the, the places where people are going to school to learn, you know, uh, and get their doctor, divinity, and all of that seminary, seminary, seminary.

They are there not to, not to bring forth disciples.

They're there to bring forth damage to the church.

They are twice dead.

They're plucked up by the roots.

They're, they're clouds without water.

That's what the Bible says about these people.

Oh, they're out there and they're in our midst.

So some examples of the spot then uh, the Bible talks about Cain, balaam and Korah.

So let's kind of examine, examine exactly how it is that they were spots, uh, and they were.

They were dangerous in the fact that they.

They were just more than just defiled and wrong.

They were shipwreckers they were.

They were like rocks and ledges under the water to lead people astray.

So with Cain, if you read the story of Cain, he was jealous of his brother, uh, abel, and Abel was his.

His sacrifice was accepted of God because he, the uh, slew a lamb in in the blood sacrifice that's the only way you could have legally come to God was over the side of a bleeding sacrifice.

And so Abel did that.

He took of his, of his flock, and killed the lamb and and made the sacrifice, and it was accepted of God.

But Cain took of the crop that he had and he brought an offering.

See, it's not an offering, it is the spotless lamb, it's.

He's got to bring the first link.

He's got to bring the best lamb, the first lamb, the spotless lamb.

No, what did he do?

He grew some wheat and took a few shocks of wheat and laid it on a rock, said here, god, here's my offering.

And God corrected him, told him hey, you know, this isn't the right thing.

You better get rid of the Senate.

You just got sent at the door here.

And then he got, instead of going and taking his wheat and buying from his brother a lamb and sacrificing that lamb.

He could have done that, but he refused.

So, in other words, what you could say is Cain was the symbol of another approach to God.

That's what all these people have.

They have another approach to God.

They're not willing to go by the blood of the lamb, they're not willing to go by the gospel, they're not willing to go by the new birth.

They have created another Jesus.

They go by another spirit and they preach another gospel.

Are you with me now?

Oh, I tell you that was.

Cain started that, and of course we know what happened to him.

He murdered his brother and all right.

The second one that the Bible talks about is Balaam, and Balaam was kind of a man of God, sort of a prophet kind of like, but he was corrupt, and so you know they had a group that wanted to buy him and purchase him to go and curse Israel.

Balak wanted to buy Balaam services.

He said I want you, I'm going to take you over here and I'm going to have you to curse Israel for me.

You're a man of God, you curse him.

And he said well, I can't speak anything except what God shows me.

So he shouldn't have gone with him, but he did, he went with him.

He should have just turned them down, but he's see, he wanted the money.

He was trying to finigle away to get the money, you know.

And and he did, wind up blessing Israel three times.

But he, his heart, he had the wrong heart and he should never have associated with Dalak and he should never have agreed to go with him.

And so later on, you know, he was in in Joshua 1322, he was slain by Israel's own sword by, and so Israel Killed him in one of their battles.

So he suffered, oh you know, suffered death because of his Touching God's anointed I mean just just considering whether he should or not was enough for God to to punish him.

And so, you know, we've got to always bless Israel, we've got to be people of the blessing.

Hey, ben, do things God's way, all right.

And then the, finally, the one with Korah Korah.

We know his story.

He, he said look, I'm just me and Nathan and Byron Korah, we're just as much able to get in God's presence as as as Moses and Aaron.

We can offer the censor, we can, we can put Incense in the censor and we can offer fire to the Lord.

And they did that.

They rebelled against God and they rebelled against God's men.

They rebelled against Moses and of course they they died because of it.

So that's what these people have in mind.

They're rebellious.

They speak evil of dignities.

What does that mean?

They have no respect for the anointing, and the anointing is God, it's not a man.

When people disrespect the anointing, they're not Disrespecting me, they're just back disrespecting the God upon me.

I mean, you know there's an anointing to pastor and when you know you can differ with me, and all that, but you gotta be careful about criticizing the anointing.

That's all I'm saying.

Gotta be careful about criticizing the anointing.

They criticized the anointing they credit.

They said oh, we're just as holy as Moses and Aaron.

Well, they weren't called and they were not right, they were rebelling.

And see, this is exactly what these, these men who have crept in unaware, the men and women I want to include women in that, because there's plenty of them as well.

So these are the examples of the Spelos, and there again, they cannot be Redeemed.

They have, they have sinned, they have trodden under the precious blood of Christ, they've denied Christ, and so there's nothing anybody can do for them except to Rebuke them and keep them away from the sheep.

So Again, they were clouds without water, murmurers and complainers.

They are mockers, they are verse 19 they separate themselves, sensual, having not the spirit.

See, they don't.

They don't have the spirit.

So that means they're not saved.

They're not saved and they separate themselves.

They don't hang around Christians, they hang around the people that they've got on the hook, that they're trying to deceive, and they try to separate them and have Lunch with them and maybe have them over to the house for a Bible study.

And next thing, you know, they've got their claws and their hooks into people.

And what are they gonna do?

They're gonna shipwreck their faith.

Now notice that we keep reading.

And he says in verse 20 now he starts talking Directly to the beloved.

He said but you, beloved, see, I've been talking about these spilos.

But you, beloved, see, what do you do about all this?

You, beloved, keep your.

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

So that's what number one.

If we want to contend for the faith, the first thing is we've got to build ourselves up.

I mean, it's the old, it's the old example we use many times in the airplane when, the, when, the.

When you are about ready to take off your taxing through the airport and and the flight attendant gets up and shows you the oxygen Mask, you know, if we should have a sudden cabin depressurization, this oxygen mass will fall from the ceiling.

Grab it and put it over your mouth and nose and pull the cord and get the oxygen flowing and and start breathing and then help your, the child or person next to you.

Don't help them, and then you do you.

So we've got to be built up before we can confront anything, before we can contend and fight and wrestle and lock horns.

It takes a spiritual person to do that, and so we have to build ourselves up on our most holy faith, pray it in the Holy Ghost, or in other words, edifying ourselves, charging our batteries, praying much in the Holy Ghost.

The second thing is we need to keep ourselves in the love of God in the agonizing way.

We need to keep ourselves in the love of God, in the agape of God.

See, you know, if you really love God, then you're gonna protect people from these evil people.

You're gonna.

You're gonna can expose them.

See, the love of God exposes that, it doesn't hide it.

It doesn't have mercy.

On that we're to have mercy, but not on that.

God's not having mercy on it.

God's not having mercy on the spilos.

Why?

Because they've been plucked up by the roots.

They've twice dead.

They have not the spirit.

God is done with them and they can never be saved.

They cannot be rescued, they cannot be redeemed.

There's no point in spending any time other than to find out who they are and to get rid of them.

If they're in a local church, they need to be run off.

They need to be uninvited.

I've had to ask people to leave before.

I don't like it.

I don't like to do that.

But when people get to and I'm not necessarily saying that they'd gotten to this point but when they hurt other people, that's when I, that's when they turn into wolves and that's when I run them off, because I'm a shepherd and I don't like well, I don't let wolves hang around and I find one, I'll run him off, her off.

So we have to keep ourselves in the agape of God.

We love the brethren, we love Jesus, we love the church, we love the holy written Word of God, we love the holy ghost.

We love, we love.

We've got the love of God.

So we will contend against any enemy.

See, that's, that really is love, you know it's.

It's not love to put up with that and to allow that.

And then he says something.

He says Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, under eternal life, and, of some, have compassion Making a difference.

So that's two things.

So so, number one, build yourself up on your most holy faith, praying in the holy ghost, edify yourself, get yourself spiritually strong, keep yourself in that way, keep yourself in the love of God, look for the mercy of God.

In all of this there is God's mercy and he, and where is his mercy going to be Headed?

Well, it's not headed to the spilos, because they are already dead, they're twice dead.

No, it's headed for the spilos.

It's headed for those that are teetering on shipwreck.

It's headed for those.

And so then he says look for opportunity to say he said others save with fear, pulling them, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh spot.

There's that word spotted again spot speed, speed loss.

See, this could be people that have disgraced themselves.

They could have sinned.

Maybe they committed adultery.

I mean, I dealt with a guy one time.

You know, he, he was speed loss.

He got deceived and he started having an affair and he had a long-term affair, cheated on his wife.

His wife found out about it and I mean pretty much everybody knew about it.

He was so embarrassed but he was more embarrassed that he was caught than he was sorry that he had cheated on his wife.

You know, and it failed to me to sit down with a guy and talk to him, these were at another church, you know, I won't mention what church it was, but I wasn't pastoring in those days.

I was just, you know, doing what I was asked to do.

And so I looked for an opportunity for God's mercy to fall on him and I pled with him to repent.

I pled with him to make things right with his wife.

I pled with him to turn away from this woman.

And you know I left him where he hadn't decided to do any of that.

I really don't know how he turned out.

I Pray he didn't go all the way to shipwreck.

I pray he didn't.

But at that time I was looking for the mercy of God over him and I was looking for an opportunity to save him.

Because I'm telling you, what if he turned away and didn't repent.

I Mean I wouldn't want to leave my body and go off into eternity with that on my resume.

That's all I can say.

And so contend for the faith, and?

And then let's read the last Verse, 24 this is so good now, under him that is able to keep you from falling.

See, you're dealing with a bunch of people that have fallen already and you're dealing with people that are tempted to fall, but under him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you Faultless before the presence of his glory, with exceeding joy.

To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty and dominion and power, both now and forever.

I'm in.

I mean he is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless.

I Remember you know Gladys.

She used to do a lot of ironing in our house and she had a big old can of spray on starch faultless starch.

Where do you think they got the name?

They got the name from right here in Jude.

Present that garment spotless and faultless, not a wrinkle in it.

And so God will keep you from falling and and and present you faultless for the before the presence of his glory.

Let's, let's see to it that we begin to contend for the faith, not only in the church but in our world, in our nation, in our Cities.

I read where parent parents and Katie rose up in anger and went to the school board and they were outraged at some dirty books they found in their libraries in middle school, books that touted homosexuality and gender Bender and all of that.

And there they were in the library.

They wanted to know how is it they found their way into the library.

See, if you go to them there say, oh no, we don't have that in the curriculum.

Well, they don't have it in the curriculum because of why?

Because it's in the library.

So they don't even have to have the curriculum.

They can just assign that, that library book, to their students.

I read another.

I read in another place today where a woman and her parents found out that their, that their junior high child had been groomed for sex change operations.

She was, she had been, they had planted the idea that she could choose her gender and she was fine.

She didn't have any problem with gender dysphoria or anything.

It was done by the school and they found out, by they digging, that the school had a, a policy that was written by the Department of Education not to allow parents to know about these things and to keep it from the parents.

So, folks, we've got a lot of work to do with our federal government.

They are rotten through and through and they're trying to steal our children and they're trying to Persecute parents from being able to know what's going on in school.

I Don't know if it's time for you to take your child out of school, out of public school, or not, but that's up to you.

But you'd better be diligent and and you better be vigilant, and don't you know to go ahead and lock horns?

You've got, you've got God's word that you can lock horns, that you can contend for the faith.

Father, we thank you for the Word of God.

We thank you, father, that we're growing in.

But holy boldness, and we are going to possess our land.

In these last days, we're not going to let the devil have our nation, not going to let the devil have our homes.

In Jesus name, amen, amen, amen, amen.

I.