Contend For Right Faith

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Morning, CCW.

Happy Sunday.

For some of you, I could tell by the looks on your faces, that silent prayer moment in the middle of communion was the most silence you've had in a while.

And it probably was doing a work in your heart.

I hope so.

Well, thank you for being here.

It has likewise been so busy this week, but I want to say a word of just praise on some of the things that have been happening.

Um last week and this week, both Pastor Dave and myself had an opportunity to speak to the Chelsea football team.

Um my opportunity came because my wife cooks, and uh Dave has gotten very involved.

And if you come to any of the games, you might hear him on the speaker.

Um and uh he's a busy bee over there, but we've had that opportunity and got to speak.

Um and Friday, it appeared five young men raised their hand uh for salvation.

So praise God for that.

Amen.

Darren Hyde cooked the pork.

I'm telling you, I told him this morning, you put pork in their belly, they they come drawn to the gospel.

Um, so we had a lot of people who helped with that.

Thank you for jumping in and cooking.

It's no small task to cook for 140 football players who are very hungry.

Um But then uh Pastor Joe was over at Coosa Valley on Friday doing their FCA and just have had a lot of opportunities.

Homecoming weekend, so it was just madness and lots and lots of opportunities.

So thank God for those, and um just glad to be a church whose heart is to be in the this community.

So if you're looking for an opportunity, just holler at us.

We can get you plugged in one way or the other.

We're gonna be talking today as Pastor Dave set the floor uh contending for the faith.

This is really the heart of where this series started, this phrase that Jude gives.

Jude wanted to write a letter about something else.

He says that, but he had to write to contend for the faith.

So we have to share that this morning.

And as we open up, uh the first point that we're gonna look at is contending to challenge culture.

Contending.

Well, that word I have not uh defined before this moment.

It's agonism.

I can't even say it.

Agonizo menos.

I'm gonna say it as two words.

Agonizo menos, okay, and you see the word agonize in it, and it is to strive earnestly.

Contend is to fight, to make vigorous effort, uh, to endeavor towards something, or even to struggle towards something.

Now hear me, it does not mean contentious.

Some people said, Oh, yes, Pastor Rick's preaching on being contentious.

This is my series.

That's not what it is.

It's to contend, and we need to contend.

We've walked through this for biblical marriages, for widows and orphans, against racism, for good government.

And now today we are contending with the hope that the church has a chance to challenge culture.

Would you pray with me?

Father, we love you and thank you for this body of people.

And we thank you that at CCW it feels like a family.

We thank you for the unity you've given us.

Now, God, I pray that you would help us just dig deeper in purpose.

God, that you would take away the small things that Lord, the Bible of Solomon said the little foxes spoil the vine.

There are a lot of little things that get us off somewhere else instead of focused on the main thing.

And God, I pray that you help us as a church.

We won't be a little foxes church, but we will be focused on the gospel of Jesus Christ and impacting this circle that you've put us in, God.

We pray our church would be that lighthouse and it starts with every individual in their seat today.

Lord, speak to us.

Get me certainly out of the way.

Let this word of yours penetrate hearts in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Letter A is this our grace is not a license.

Look at verse 3 and 4.

Beloved, I would underline circle that.

That's an important word we'll come back to.

Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you instead, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turned the grace of our God into lewdness, and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

So letter A there again.

Our grace is not a license.

A license is something that gives you a privilege.

I remember having to write that they give it a multiple choice when I was taking the test.

Is a license or is a license a right or is it a privilege?

And I remember circling that it was my right as a teenager.

Take a look here.

This is one of my privileges that I had.

I had me a Plymouth Sundance, and when I had a license, I had a right to drive that car, but I only had a right to drive it as long as I had that license.

And my very first ticket came inside of that car, Plymouth Sundance.

Can you believe by looking at it?

It was a four-cylinder, and my very first ticket was a 97 and a 55.

I mean, it was shaking.

It was going so fast.

And I lost my privilege.

If you know what I'm saying, I lost my privilege.

I lost my license for six months on that ticket.

I paid that county$350, and I learned, that was like two months into driving, I learned that I didn't want to lose my privilege anymore.

I've got a wedding ring and a marriage license.

The state recognizes that I'm married.

And I know some of y'all look at Heather and go, I cannot believe that that beautiful woman married that man.

But I've got a ring and a license that tells me that privilege is mine and her.

And so our grace is not a license.

Grace, hear me, this is the definition, is undeserved or unmerited favor.

Church, the grace of God is the most extravagant privilege someone could ever attain.

God's grace sent Jesus Christ.

Think on that.

It's not a right.

John 3.16 said, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.

Whosoever believeth in him would not perish but have everlasting life.

It is such a beautiful, immense privilege.

And God's grace frees us.

Hear that?

It frees us from the penalty that sin would have us to pay.

It does not merit me more opportunity to sin.

Romans 6, I want you to see this.

Jude mentioned there.

Grace is not a license.

Romans 6, we're gonna look at verse 1 and 15.

Paul said, what shall we say then?

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

Certainly not.

Go down to verse 15.

What then?

Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace?

Certainly not.

Grace is this privilege that's been given to us, and it's not a privilege so that we can then go and do however we want to do.

We have the free will to do what we want to do, but when Jesus Christ died for us, it wasn't so that we could check that box and say, well, now I got grace.

And because of grace, I can really kind of do what I want to, and then go visit with Jesus on Monday.

You see, there is a theology, why am I saying this?

Because they're talking in Jude about some people that were creeping into the churches with messages that were inappropriate and they were using grace as a privilege, and it still exists today.

You have something called free grace theology or hyper grace theology, and it basically comes to this that they say, Jesus Christ, because of what he did for us, there's no sinful action that can harm or hurt fellowship with God.

Nor is there any necessity of confession for sin.

Does that make sense?

The grace of God is a free gift that takes me from the penalty of sin.

And what free grace is saying is that now I get to sin.

It's not so that I can do as I please.

Martin Luther discovered this heresy in the Roman Catholic Cathedral.

And here's what he read: that both Scripture and, hear me, both scripture and Catholic traditions were to be held as devotion.

They were to be held that utmost.

Scripture, yes, but scripture and Catholic tradition is using grace.

They're saying there's more.

Plus, Catholic tradition must be accepted.

So selling and buying of indulgence, all these things.

Luther was a Catholic monk, and because of this understanding, he started what's called the Reformation.

I want you to see an image of the five solas that came from the Reformation.

These are the things that came from this search.

By grace alone are we saved, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

It's not Christ plus.

It's not Christ plus do something.

It's not that.

By the scripture alone and for the glory of God alone.

But the Roman Catholic Church was using grace as a license to teach heresy.

They were saying this plus whatever else we sort of want to add in.

We want you to believe in what we add in.

And by the way, it's not just Roman Catholic Church.

Okay, there's people behind lots of pulpits today who add pluses, who make it biblical or doctrinal when it's preference or belief or whatever it is.

But if it's not in this book, then I would be very careful of believing it as if it's truth.

So it goes on in verse 7 through 10, and he reveals the type of apostasy that's been in the church and the previous fate of all those who committed that apostasy.

But I want you to see this other from group from verse 3 and 4.

I'll read it again.

For certain men, verse 4, have crept in unnoticed who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men who turned the grace of our Lord into lewdness and deny the only Lord God.

The only, I want to tell you who we are today, church.

At the church at Chelsea Westover, we are a monotheistic, one God, Trinitarian church.

We believe in one God and three persons.

But they were denying that Jesus Christ was Lord.

And I want to tell you what differentiates us from many denominations, from many belief systems, is what a person says about who Jesus is.

In Islam, Jesus was a great prophet, not Lord.

The Hinduists believe that he was a great teacher, but he was not God.

The Buddhists believe that he was an enlightened man.

Many people even believe so much to say that Jesus is the Son of God, but not God.

Jesus himself asked the disciples this provoking question: Who do you say that I am?

Well, I want to tell you why we believe what we believe.

John 1.1 says, In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

That word for word is Lagos, and it means Christ.

In the beginning was Christ who was with God and was God.

How else do you interpret that?

He was God.

In Genesis 1.26, it says, God said, Let us make man in our image.

Who is the hour?

Who else was there?

Let us make man in our image.

I want you to see Colossians chapter 1.

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

I love this.

Love this scripture.

Colossians chapter 1.

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

Verse 14 through 17.

How do you defend this?

Because when you have this conversation about who Jesus is, God, these are scriptures you need.

Okay.

Genesis 1, 26 and 27, John 1.1, Colossians 1, 14 through 70.

I would write those down.

If you have co-workers, if you have friends, family members, believe differently about who Jesus is.

It is Jesus who is the Christ of Christianity.

If you're a Christian, this is bedrock.

It says, in whom we have redemption, this is verse 14 in Colossians 1, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sin.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, for by him all things were created that are in heaven and on earth, visible, invisible, thrones, dominions, principalities, or powers.

All things were created through him and for him.

And he is before all things, and in him all things consist.

It said, by him, through him, for him, and in him everything consists.

We believe here at the church at Chelsea West over that Jesus is God.

Can I give an amen?

We don't deny Jesus Christ.

We believe.

And I said earlier, you can differentiate all kinds of denomination beliefs and religious beliefs by this question: who do you say that Jesus is?

Now I know that we are in the Bible belt, and I know that we are in the church and I'm preaching to the choir when I say Jesus is God.

But I want to challenge you for a self-examination.

I know in word, probably nobody here would say, Pastor, I don't think Jesus is God by lip.

But we're saying today, trial has been set and you have been charged with Christianity.

Would the jury find unanimously to convict that your life, not your lip, that your life is evidence that you believe Jesus Christ is Lord?

Your life.

Would they find would a jury of your peers, your closest people that know you, have to find you, gavel down that you are guilty of being a Christian by life, not just lip?

What do you mean, Pastor?

You see, the word Lord means master.

Yes, I believe Jesus is Lord.

Well, is he master?

Is he authority in your life?

If we're checking the evidences, if we're checking your schedule, is your life showing that Jesus is Lord if we're checking your thought patterns?

We're checking your Facebook.

Is Jesus Lord if we're checking your checkbook?

Is Jesus Lord?

Are there any other Lords that are more Lord than Jesus' Lord?

Because Jesus doesn't want to share Lordship.

He is master, he is owner.

When you look through those things, would you be found guilty of being a Christian?

Well, let's look at the second thing this morning.

We must contend with comprehension.

How do we contend in this fight of false teaching?

Whether taking a hit at our faith.

Well, Jude begins to tell us.

Look at verse 16 through 19.

It gives you some signs of what this will look like.

It says, Apostates that have been predicted is the heading over verse 16 in my chapter.

These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lust, and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.

But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.

How they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lust.

These are sensual persons who cause divisions not having the spirit.

Letter A is this we must discern the wrong way.

Must have discernment of the wrong way.

Verse 19, it tells us it's a fruit inspection.

There are those who have not the spirit.

Have you ever been sitting down with somebody and listen, if you if you've been a Christian for a while, you can be around somebody and it sort of just sticks out.

But have you ever been sitting with somebody and is like, hmm, Heather and I once had a lunch with some folks who were looking to get involved in worship.

And never once in the whole conversation of an hour had I heard this person who loved to sing say anything about Jesus.

Never mentioned the word Jesus in an hour's time.

They never once said, I love to worship Jesus.

Said a lot about singing.

Said a lot about I just have to do that.

It's part of my gift.

Never once did they say anything about the Bible.

Now listen, I've been saved for 33 years, but I'm not a dummy.

The Bible says the spirit bears witness of itself.

Some of y'all, listen, if you've been saved for a while, it's on your face.

You can't even help it.

You just glow, Jesus.

It's definitely on your words, but it's on you.

There's some Christians here.

You've been saved a long time.

I know you're saved, but you do need to work on smiling sometimes.

It sure would help.

Just a crack of a smile.

Remember that old song we used to sing, This Little Light of Mine?

I'm gonna let it shine.

I can't even help, but let it shine.

If it's in you, whatever's in you, by the way, is coming out.

Galatians 5 22 is the fruit inspection.

But these are the fruits of the spirit: gentleness, meekness, kindness, long-suffering, all of these things should be a marker.

So he says, discern some of these don't have that spirit.

It made me think.

Some of you will remember.

How many of you remember Bruce Cadle?

Some okay.

So Bruce, when you came into church, and I could say this to Bruce's face, we had a fun joking relationship.

Bruce, people called him Moses.

Bruce had a beard down the hair, really long hair, and Bruce was just kind of funny.

And uh one of my first interactions with Bruce, we had what was trunk or treat back then, harvest jam now, and I come around the corner and Bruce had, I don't even know how to explain his vehicle.

He told me one time that it had a million miles on it, and I believed him.

And out of the back of this vehicle, he had a brown cardboard sign, and it said, Root beer floats.

And I was like, Bruce is making his own root beer floats, oh boy.

This is the first thing people were coming onto the CCW lot seeing Bruce, and then I'm like, well, but this is one thing that I know about Bruce.

The love of God was on his face.

Man, you couldn't help when you'd be around Bruce.

Bruce is in heaven now.

I know that Bruce was a Christian.

Bruce had some crazy things that were going on, but Bruce loved God.

You couldn't be around him for very long.

I mean, many people that came in and were hugged by Grandpa Moses were like that guy.

Something about that guy.

He loved God, it was on him.

He couldn't help it.

Did you see what verse 16 said?

More fruit inspection.

This is hard for us.

He says, There are grumblers and complainers.

The word complainer, the root is memphome, and that means to find a fault.

In Philippians verse 2 or chapter 2, it says, Do all things without murmuring or complaint.

The effect complaining.

Now I found this on the internet this week, so it has To be true, so I'm gonna share it.

It says complaining has a physical effect on you that reinforces more negative thought patterns.

In other words, it makes it easier for you to continue to complain in the future.

It said, now listen, I haven't done this test, but it says it can shrink the hippocampus part of your brain, which is required for memory and problem solving.

Which does make sense to me because a complainer doesn't look to solve a problem just to complain.

Right?

And then it said it triggers cortisol, which is your stress hormone.

You know what Paul said conversely to do instead?

Because it's his rhetoric.

He said, Rejoice in the Lord.

Rejoice in the Lord.

Have gratitude instead of a complaint.

Well, Philippians 4.6, you say, Pastor, is it sin to complain?

I don't want to say that blanketly because I believe in Philippians 4.6, he says, here's the exchange.

He says, but in everything with prayer and supplication, let your request be made known unto God.

He doesn't say good request, bad request, positive request, negative request.

But I think the right way to complain comes by prayer.

If we have a complaint, I think the right thing to do is to come to God who wants to hear us in prayer and wants to look at our situation.

And he says, not that you won't have stress, but when you have stress, come to me with what it is.

But it didn't stop with just that word complaint.

There's a second word here that I'm not so sure we could say is Nazi.

It says murmur or grumbler.

It's like a guttural, the noise, murmur.

And this is what it really means.

This is a cool word.

Gungustas.

Gungustas is to grumble or to say in a low tone or secretly and contentious.

I'm gonna say that again.

The murmur is to grumble or to say in a low tone or secretly and contentious.

A complainer has a complaint and files the complaint.

A murmurer is a complaining coward, right?

They have something to say, but they're just get my way, I want my way, I can't believe what she's and won't face someone to the face.

It is a complaining coward, a complaining gossip.

They'll go and talk to somebody else and share the thing, but they're not going to do Matthew 18 and go to someone's face and look to really fix it.

If you will do that, I promise so many things more things will be fixed than if you go and just complain.

That doesn't do anything.

Well, I have something to confess.

We went to the barbershop recently, and I gotta give you a background, some context before I tell you what happened.

But I went in and I've heard there's a lady, I've heard her before, she's loud and she gets contentious with the other ladies.

I hear this going on.

I'm just going there to get a haircut.

I'm not there for a good time, bad time, any time.

I just need this haircut.

Well, some context is when I was growing up, my dad took me to the farmer's market for a haircut.

Okay?

The farmer's market, you could walk in, you can get a smoothie, some clams.

They had a place called the bag of all sorts.

You had no idea what was in it, but you paid a dollar and you opened it up and it was all a surprise.

It was like somebody emptied their drunk junk drawer and you paid a dollar.

Okay?

Bag of all sorts, use video games, you could get pizza.

The farmer's market was everything.

Well, when I went to get my haircut, I mean they had designer clothes, Tommy Hill trigger.

You know what I'm saying?

You couldn't get a coach purse, but you could probably get assistant coach.

Like that was the farmer's market.

And so I'm walking through that place and we would go in to get a haircut.

And the guy who seemed to always cut my hair, he had the biggest, thickest glasses.

And we weren't sure he could see, right?

We weren't totally sure, right?

And he had big, he had hearing aids.

He definitely couldn't hear.

I walked down to the farmer's market several times with a flat top, never asked for one.

Okay?

And a flat top haircut, and here was the thing.

My dad was happy about it because he paid five bucks.

He didn't care what I got.

He's like, here he is, he's yours.

I it was like the bag of all sorts going into the barbershop.

I don't know what I'm getting.

Could come out with a perm.

I didn't know.

So I'm starting by saying I have a low standard for haircuts.

How do they take the boys and spend 40 bucks on all this?

I'm like, nah, five dollars, anything more than 15, and we're getting robbed.

So we go into the place, and I have been working Weston over because he doesn't want a haircut and he needs one real bad.

I'm like, oh, it's gonna be okay.

I promise I'm gonna tell her exactly what you need.

It's gonna be okay.

She'll do what you need.

And we walk in and I sit him down and I begin to tell him, okay, sides and back, just nothing off the top.

He wants to keep his hair long top, likes his long hair.

And uh, she's like, Oh, that's impossible.

I'm like, what are you talking about?

And I've heard this lady contend before.

And I'm like, no, you can kind of blend it.

I'm not talking about, you know, that you can't take some of it.

She's like, no, I can't do that at all.

And I'm like, I said, let's go, let's go.

In front of all these people, the boy got up, and I was getting my hair cut too.

I said, we're both going, and I'm completely just later.

The boy was welling up, tears were coming down, about to come down his face, because she was gonna do everything he didn't want.

So I left there and I'm confessing.

I murmured all the way to the car.

Okay, I'm telling you.

Used to have youth activities, and I'd come in and somebody, a grown adult, they would say something like this.

Boy, Pastor, sure is a small crowd here tonight.

Like, what are you saying?

Why do you got to say things like that?

Everyone who's there just heard, you don't care about who is here, you care about who's not here.

I'm like, don't talk like that.

What are we saying?

We need to celebrate what is, not what isn't.

Jude said, these people are looking not to contend, but to be contentious.

Murmuring, complaining.

They're looking, he said, to cause division.

Sixteen times in the Old Testament, the word grumble is used.

Okay?

Or murmur.

Eleven times toward Moses, the leader, and five times toward God himself.

The Israelites, none of them want Moses' job, but all of them want to complain about the leader's job.

Marker of wolves.

That's what Jews are saying.

Marker of wolves.

Right?

They're amidst us looking to contend.

Well, it wasn't just contentious or murmuring, but he says, pretenders.

Pretenders, people that want to make great swelling words for advantage.

I want you to turn to 1 Corinthians.

I want you to see some cross-text here.

1 Corinthians chapter 4.

1 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

Pretentious.

Christian faith.

Look at verse 7.

We'll read 7 through 10 and then we'll hit 18.

For who makes you differ from another?

And what do you have that you did not receive?

Now, if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

You are already full, you are already rich, you have reigned as kings without us, and indeed I could wish you did reign that we also might reign with you.

For I think that God has displayed us the apostles, last as men condemned to death.

For we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.

We are fools for Christ's sakes, but you are wise.

We are weak, but you are strong.

You are distinguished, but we are dishonored.

He's saying the picture, we've been through all kinds of things as Christians, and you're looking to be heralded as great before men.

Look at verse 18.

He says, Now some of you are puffed up as though I were not coming to you, but I will come to you shortly if the Lord wills, and I will know.

Not the word of those who are puffed up.

I will not know these great words, these boastful words, but the power.

For the kingdom of God is not in word, but it is in power.

Church, the power of God falls on a place where the Holy Spirit sees fit.

It is not my words, it is not a worship team, it is not another pastor, it is the power of God and the Holy Spirit that sees fit.

There exist a great many orators of this book.

It's not their words, it's the power of the Holy Spirit.

To contend with comprehension is to know God.

It's not in pretense, it's in the power of God.

If you're in a church today, or if you go visit a church and you don't feel the power of God and the presence of God and the people of God, then I wouldn't go back to that church.

The scripture here calls it apostates.

Many churches today are full of pretenders.

There's a rather pompous Sunday school teacher trying to impress upon a class of boys the importance of living the Christian life.

And he said to the boys, Why do people call me Christian?

After a pause, one boy raised his hand and said, Maybe it's because they really don't know you.

Yikes.

In your life, when you get around something like that, the Holy Spirit, if it's in you, will give you what I call like a holy hesitation.

How did I feel that day at that lunch?

Listen, somebody can get up here on this stage, whether it's me, somebody sing, and they could be so good, so much talent.

I could care less about the talent compared to the heart.

Are they walking with Jesus?

Is that a reality in their life?

Well, I want to show you something that uh shows from 2 Peter attributes of a false teacher.

I don't know if this is big enough for you to really see well, but I'm gonna hit a couple of them.

You can look just right there.

2 Peter chapter 2, it says, There are all these attributes throughout that passage.

2 Peter 2 · chapter mention

Here's a few.

They infiltrate the church, they deny the work of Jesus, they use words close to the truth, but not the truth.

They're peaceful on the outside, but on the inside, it's raging.

Okay.

Intentionally lie.

They're out for money.

You can look over these if you want this list later.

I can get it to you, but I want you to know.

2 Peter 2 covers all of these things and attributes of false teachers.

We need to be aware.

What's out here?

Now, what should we do, Pastor?

Letter B.

We need to remember the right word.

Remember the right word.

Acts chapter 20.

Acts 20 · chapter mention

You find this in several passages, but I want to just hit one of them.

Acts 20, 29, and 30.

What is the right word?

What are we talking about?

Jude said that.

He commended them, remember the words that you have heard.

And the apostle said in Acts 20, 29, For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.

Also from among yourselves will rise up, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves.

I'm going to give you these passages.

You can look them up later if you want.

Mark 13, 20 through 22, 2 Timothy 3, and there again 2 Peter 2 and 3, all with the same message that there is going to be wolves.

There's going to be people who want to be seen as Christian or godly who are not.

They continuously taught that there would come a time where people would twist and pervert the word of God.

Well, in that time frame, here's a few of the things they battle with.

They battled with Gnosticism.

It was prevalent for the disciples dealing with, and Gnostics believed this, that they were saved through secret power.

That's what Gnosis means, G-N-O-S-I-S.

They believed in other worlds, and they believed in the worship of nature.

Docetism.

Jesus Christ was a spirit that never really existed.

He was never really a man.

The death of Jesus Christ wasn't a real thing that happened, and the resurrection were all illusions.

That's what Docetism shares about Jesus.

And then, of course, we've talked other weeks about the legalism of that time, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, all this works-based salvation.

The first sight that came up upon me searching out some information on false gospels was operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I thought, well, this is fun.

The Latter-day Saints are talking about the false gospels in the world.

The Mormons out here sharing about false gospels.

The Mormon church currently has four million members and believe that Jesus Christ was married and Jesus Christ had children, and Jesus Christ was not God, but was not a God, but all Mormons will one day become like God.

Joseph Smith, their leader, was a con man.

He was a wolf in sheep's clothing.

He made himself out to be a special prophet.

Like Muhammad, like Jim Jones, like David Koresh in Waco.

This cracked me out by looking through a picture of David Koresh.

People believe David Koresh to be Jesus Christ.

David Koresh had glasses.

Like Jesus needed an optometrist?

These people.

He could heal, but he couldn't heal himself.

Give me a break.

But the Mormons are out here telling us about the false gospels.

Let me tell you about some real, false gospels to be careful of in our day and time.

You've heard this before, but prosperity gospel.

The Bible for the prosperity gospelists is a contract between God and man that says, if I will be faithful, God is going to pour buckets of cash from heaven, or he is going to bless you in amazing ways for your faithfulness and to become so us centered.

That's easy to buy, right?

I want in.

I won't say it, I'm tempted.

I declare.

I just declare it.

The word of faith movement, which is a cousin to prosperity gospel, says, name it and claim it.

And I want to tell you, be careful, Romans 4.17.

This is your verse.

It says this only God brings things to existence with his words.

We don't bring something into existence.

In Genesis, God spoken something came into existence, but it's very prevalent.

It's in worship culture, it's in church culture.

You can find it easily, the word of faith movement.

Self-help gospel.

The self-help gospel says, defeat your Goliaths.

Right?

It makes you Jesus in the story.

It's all about you doing it.

And I'm not saying we don't have Goliaths or challenges, right?

Or it makes you the person who you gotta just get out there and part your Red Sea.

It ain't yours to part.

Moses didn't part the Red Sea.

I want to give you something today.

He didn't part the Red Sea.

Do you understand?

It makes us the center of that gospel, me centered.

The focus is not Jesus Christ.

There's a churchless gospel.

The focus of faith is primarily on the individual, and that makes it so that the communion of faith is an option.

You are the church.

It's not his building, it's not an option.

If you come to Christ, then you are his body.

Yes, I believe in a local New Testament assembly, obviously.

You should assemble, and you should assemble as frequently as possible, but you can't separate the church from the gospel.

Well, what do we do to make a change?

Point number three contending for change.

But you, beloved, there's that word again.

Beloved, beloved is a word for Christians.

You see it in the book of Revelation, you see it in John.

Beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.

Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ into eternal life.

Letter A is this, care for the church.

So how do we contend to make some sort of difference?

Letter A, we care for the church.

Beloved, the New Testament, beloved, is used for divine acts of Christian love and affection by the Christian community.

He says, Build and care for the church.

I want you to see, I've got some verses on building of the church.

And I want you to see this image of those verses.

Here's what you'll find Romans chapter 15, verse 2.

Romans 15:2

Every time you see the word edification, it's the word build, or you see the word build.

Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification.

As a Christian, we're to build up.

Ephesians 4.12, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying, building up of the body of Christ.

Ephesians 4.29 says, let no corrupt communication, but edify.

Build each other up.

Colossians 3.2, rooted and built up in him, we establish our faith.

And there comfort one another and edify one another.

It's all building.

To advance in the faith, to understand what you believe, you have to be built.

And that's what Judah's saying.

You need to understand this doctrine.

Understand what's fake and understand what's real.

And in order to understand it, you've got to be built up.

You've got to be built.

It's not going to come to you through spiritual osmosis.

How can you contend or confront false doctrine?

You have to know where you stand.

Let me just tell you, at CCW, we have two adult Bible studies on Sunday morning.

We have three adult Bible studies on Wednesday night.

We have seven to ten connect groups running continuously.

We have a woman's mentoring group once a month.

We have a woman with children group meets every Thursday.

And we need more.

Why?

Because we want to build each other up in the right doctrine.

Why do we want to do that, Pastor?

The care for the church.

Well, Galatians 6, 2 tells us to bear one another's burdens with love.

And so fulfill the law of Jesus Christ.

As a church, we want to bear burdens.

Well, what does that mean, fulfilling the law of Jesus Christ?

Well, the law of Jesus Christ was to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, and then love your neighbor as yourself.

So he said to fulfill it, bear one another's burdens.

To fulfill the greatest command, hear me, because some of y'all, here's the deal: to get any deeper, you need something more.

And you've been content to status quo.

Listen, I love Sunday morning worship.

I need more.

I love this service, but I need to bear burdens and pray with people with real skin next to me.

And I need to learn the Bible deeper than that.

So he says, bear one another's burdens, so fulfill the law of Christ, which is love God, love your neighbor.

And then verse one explains why he said, Bear one another's burdens.

He said, Brethren, you which are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of meekness, lest you also be tempted.

In other words, when somebody is sinning, when somebody is messing up, we come alongside of them and we say, Oh, that's a burden you don't want to bear.

And we go alongside of them, and we we which are supposed to be spiritual, we come alongside.

Unless we fail and falter, so we help somebody else.

Bear that burden so they're not in it alone.

And so then you don't see your friend who got out of church for 10 years.

And you're like, What happened?

I got hurt, I got my feelings hurt, or whatever happened, and I messed up in this sin and I didn't want to face church people, and people go for these big gaps and they're not growing.

Why?

So we come along and we bear a burden.

The word burden and yoke are often used together.

And here's the point: when you're yoked together with somebody, the burden is distributed, the weight is distributed among people.

So it made me think about something that's been going on in the past week, and it's been devastating.

I got off the phone with a friend of mine this morning who's a pastor in Hickory, North Carolina.

And I want to tell you there's been great devastation, over 133 deaths so far recorded.

And they need, let me tell you what they need.

They don't need the government.

They need the church to be the church.

If the church will be the church in this catastrophe, Those needs will be met.

Houses will be rebuilt.

People will be fed, and we will see the work of God throughout these areas.

The body of Christ builds.

We build.

A lady, I think Dave contacted, but it was like this lady in the area who was heading down to North Carolina, and we asked a few of the church, sent out a text, and she was able to take two trailers worth of stuff to North Carolina in hours.

That was the church acting like the church.

And we're gonna have a slide later, Dave, talk about it, but we have an opportunity to give so that we can help.

And there are North Carolina Baptists on hand.

I watched a video this morning that of all Dr.

Phil put out, but Dr.

Phil is there in the midst of it, shoveling mud, and in the background are the Samaritan Purse, Franklin Grant's organ, and all these an army of orange shirts just rebuilding people's homes and their lives.

It's what we do, Christians.

We build.

We build for one another, we bear burdens.

And so we're gonna have a time when we close to pray over this devastation.

But what is your part to build?

Now, by the way, that's one thing.

There is tragedy all around us.

Not all of it takes the form of a hurricane.

There is someone in your neighborhood going through divorce.

There is someone who just lost somebody.

There is somebody who has a job situation that they're trying to figure out.

There's a brother or sister in here now that's walking through a sin that's got a stranglehold.

They just wish a brother in which was spiritual would come along and help them.

Jude is saying a Christian has to be built through help.

We help.

And then he says, building yourselves up on your most holy faith and then praying.

We pray for one another.

Don't take for granted before you leave today, if you put your arm on somebody and say, How can I pray for you?

And the encouragement that it is to pray.

So this hit me.

Why doesn't Jude just tell us to wash our hands of false teachers?

I'm done.

I see them, I notice them.

That's what it is.

And I'm just going to stay away.

It doesn't say wash your hands of false teachers.

It doesn't say just walk away.

Why contend and not condemn?

Let her be.

Compassion for the confused.

If we will have this as Christians, compassion, even when somebody's motives are wrong, even when the other side is ugly, even when somebody wants to hurt me, this is the blessed are those who persecute me.

We have to have that real, what Jesus did for me on the cross, compassion.

I really want to help.

Compassion for the confused.

Verse 22 and 23 says this, and on some have compassion, making a distinction, but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.

That word there, that distinction, on some have compassion making a distinction.

There are some that have doubt.

There are some people being pulled.

There are some people that are saying a lot of things that aren't sure they believe them.

There are people that you work with that have heard something that sounds real good or is culturally sort of sticks out and they like how that sounds or how it makes them look.

But that word doubt is decrino and it means having wavering faith.

Someone that's being at odds with their own self.

Contending for the faith means understanding that someone is in doubt.

And the distinction between a doubter, right, someone who's somewhere maybe in the middle, and an arrogant scoffer, someone who's done, someone who understands and doesn't care.

And the key component was found in verse 10.

So we have mercy.

It takes mercy for someone who does not understand.

But those who do, they know and they care.

But Jude 7 and 24 both say we contend for the faith.

Why?

Because we were all, hear me, we were all once without it.

You were once without the faith.

And here's the idea: the idea of life without the faith, eternal life without faith.

The idea of not having that gospel touched in a confused heart means a life that's damned to eternity in a real place called hell.

Lots of Christians doubted, church.

You may be sitting here and you struggled with doubt.

Matthew 28, Jesus came across Thomas and Thomas doubted.

He said, Lest I touch the wound.

Peter doubted.

Even John the Baptist in prison exhibited doubt.

And you know what?

Jesus Christ, not once with any of them approached doubt with anything but mercy.

He didn't come to them in condemnation.

He understood that there was a struggle.

So here's the question: Who is going to reach your doubting family member?

If not you?

Who is going to reach your doubting co-worker?

Who is going to reach your doubting friend?

If not you.

We contend because there's people like Lee.

I want to tell you about Lee.

Lee was a writer who wrote for the Chicago Tribune.

His faith status when he was writing for the Tribune was a proud atheist.

Meanwhile, on the inside, there was secret doubt.

Lee married Leslie, and Leslie made a friend that became the real hero of this story.

Leslie became best friends with Linda.

And as they would go and do things, Linda kept pestering Leslie about coming to one of her church services.

And finally, after many opportunities, Leslie went to church with Linda.

And Linda sat there at Willow Creek and heard the gospel.

And her heart was so penetrated by the words of the pastor that day, she went down to the altar, and as her heart was pulled and drawn, she received that message of salvation.

But when Leslie went home, that sent Lee tracking the opposite side of the universe.

And all he wanted to do from that moment forward, seeing what has happened to his wife, was prove that it was anything but true.

And so he went on for months and months trying to down this tunnel disprove that his wife really found faith.

After months and months, I want to tell you, Lee Strobel is now known as the New York Times bestselling author of over 40 books, which include the case, hear me, for Christ, not against him.

Over 14 million Christian books by Lee Strobel have been bought and purchased.

Serious doubt was in his life.

Some would say almost on the other side.

And Jesus Christ used Linda, just a quiet neighbor friend, to invite Leslie.

And because she did, some having compassion, making a difference, hating and pulling them, snatching them out of the fire.

Because Linda, the unsung hero, was obedient in her faith and contended for her faith, untold hundreds, if not thousands, have been reached with the message of the gospel.

Church, you matter.

Your stand matters in both lip and life.

We're excited you joined us for today's message.

Our heart is to connect with others in our community, to grow with one another, and build a bigger kingdom.

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Thank you again for joining us on the CCW podcast.

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