A Daily Walk

Narrator: Knowing what you believe and why you believe it is important, and so is sharing it and contending for it. As Pastor John Randall explains.

John Randall: If you don't know how to get to heaven, you don't know as much as you need to know. Because this, right here, the Gospel, is the most important information that anybody could ever share with you. It's the most... there's nothing more important than the Gospel, friend, because one day, everybody's life ends and they die. So you've got to know where you're going. That's how critical it is.

That's why it's so important to know what we believe and why we believe it and then of course to share that, contending, standing for the truth of how a person is truly saved. There's no more important information than this.

Narrator: Welcome again to A Daily Walk. In just a moment, we'll be joined by Pastor John Randall, who will once again take us to the book of Jude. Now, this little epistle is just 25 verses long, but it has a lot to say to us about contending for the faith.

False teaching invades virtually every arena of our lives, from what we watch and listen to in the media, sometimes it comes to our front door at home, and other times, sadly, in our very church. How do we avoid falling for it and how do we identify them? Let's find out.

John Randall: Jude, the author, the church abroad, or the readers, and then he extends a common greeting in verse 2: "Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you." Folks, I hope that you are grateful tonight that the God that we serve is a merciful God. He's merciful.

Mercy is the withholding of a just condemnation. It's not getting what we deserve. Because of our sin and rebellion against God, we deserve judgment. We deserve separation from God for eternity, but he doesn't give us what we deserve. He gives us mercy.

I never wake up in the morning and say, "God, just give me what I deserve today." I wake up and say, "God, give me mercy, mercy. That mercy that's new every morning. Can I have a lot of that? Plenty of it to go around. Mercy."

Not only mercy, the Bible says in Psalm 86:15, "But you, oh Lord, are a God full of compassion, gracious, long-suffering, abundant in mercy and truth." Ephesians 2:4 says, "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he has loved us."

In James 2, it says, "Judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy, but mercy triumphs over judgment." And all of the mercy of God triumphed over the judgment that we deserved at the cross. He says mercy, but let me add to that: peace.

Peace is a condition of freedom from disturbance. It's the opposite of division and dissension. There are various forms of the word peace in the Bible. It's found 429 times in the King James Version. I'd like to go through those now. No, I'm not going to.

But there are different types of peace, including false peace, inner peace, peace with God, and peace with men. But ultimately, our peace is found in the Prince of Peace. And the Prince of Peace declares in John chapter 14 verse 27, "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

Are you at peace tonight? Oftentimes, when your peace is disrupted, it can be a direct connection to what it is that you are focused on. If you're focused on the Prince of Peace, you'll find peace. If you're focused on the circumstances in this world, you're going to be not at peace.

The Lord says, "I offer you peace." The Bible says, "Let the peace of God rule in your heart." Mercy, peace, and love, Jude says. The word is *agape*. It's the love that God is in his character. It's the love that God has demonstrated.

The Bible says in 1 John chapter 4 verse 9, it says, "In this is love, the love of God was manifested toward us that he sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him." Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Do you know tonight that you're loved by God? I can't hear it enough. God actually loves me. If you only knew tonight the depth, the height, the length, the breadth, the width, the eternal nature of God's love. All of heaven will reveal it. It'll be amazing to see and understand fully.

But following the identification of the author and the reader, here we come now to the intention of this letter. What's the purpose? Why are you writing this letter? Why did you send this to us? What's the deal? Here he tells us. Here's the intention of the letter.

Verse 3: "Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints."

Now, when Jude sat down to write this letter, his intention from the beginning, he said, "You know what? When I sat down to write what I was going to write, I was going to just talk to you about salvation, our common salvation. What a great subject to write on. Let's just talk about what it means to be saved. Let's just talk about how grateful that we are saved. Let's talk about the benefits of being saved. What a great letter that would have been."

But when he sat down to write that, he said, "You know something, I found it more necessary to write on a different subject. I was going to write on this, but the Holy Spirit moved Jude to write on something else, a different subject entirely, and that is contending earnestly for the faith."

Now mark this word. The word "contending" is where we get our English word for "agonize," to agonize. The Apostle Paul was very fond of this word. He would use it in different epistles. He would talk about, when he talked about athletes striving, agonizing.

And it's this term that speaks of an athlete expending all of his energy and strength to win a race, just agonizing with everything that's within him. It's also a picture of a person taking their stand and defending something.

In 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 12, Paul said, "Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life to which you were also called and have confessed a good confession in the presence of many witnesses." That's what Jude is saying.

We need to get in the ring. We need to contend for the faith. This is a battle. It's a spiritual battle. And so he's exhorting the church. Now, how does one prepare to contend? You don't just jump in the ring without preparation.

How does one prepare for a race? How does one get ready for something like this? In the spiritual context, to contend for the faith, it starts with studying God's word, being a student of the word of God. Because this is the sword of the Spirit.

The Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 15, it says, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker that does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." If you're going to contend for the faith, then you've got to know what faith you believe.

What do you believe? Why do you believe it? And that comes through the study of the word of God. That's how you prepare for the fight. But in addition to studying the word of God, you have to be ready. In that preparation, you're preparing, you're getting ready.

1 Peter chapter 2 verse 15 says it this way: "Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and in fear."

There is this study of God's word, there is this preparation mentally, spiritually, my heart internally. And then there is in this battle, there's this holding fast, element of holding fast. Titus in chapter 1 verse 19 says, "Holding fast the faithful word as it has been taught, that you may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convict those who contradict."

So you study God's word so you can rightly divide it. You're prepared so that when an answer is required, you're ready to give it. And then you hold fast what it is that you've been taught so that you can use sound doctrine against those who would contradict. This is how you prepare.

Now why was Jude so straightforward and exhortative and contending for the faith? Because this is the faith, he says, that was once delivered to all the saints. Once. It means something that was accomplished or completed one time with lasting results, no need for repetition.

"Delivered" conveys the basic meaning to deliver to somebody something to take care of, to manage. It's like Jude is saying God gave the Christian doctrines to the saints as a deposit of truth that is to be guarded with your life. He entrusted the truth to the church collectively as a stewardship, not something to be taken lightly.

This is a critical trust because it's the only way a person can get saved. This is the most important information that any person could ever have. It's found right here. You can know a lot of things about all kinds of different subjects, but if you don't know how to get to heaven, you don't know as much as you need to know.

Because this, the Gospel, is the most important information that anybody could ever share with you. There's nothing more important than the Gospel, friend, because one day every person's life ends and they die. So you've got to know where you're going.

That's how critical it is. That's why it's so important to know what we believe and why we believe it and then of course to share that, contending, standing for the truth of how a person is truly saved. There's no more important information than this.

But another reason why Jude was so earnest and so bold in exhortation for the church to be prepared to contend for the faith is this is what it says here: there was an infiltration. It says in verse 4: "Certain men have crept in unnoticed. Long ago, they were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ."

The reason why it's so critical to contend for the faith is that false teachers had made their way into the church. They've come in through the side door, stealthily, quietly. They settled among the people and the church didn't recognize them. They just kind of hung out for a little while, didn't say much. They showed up.

The devil was trying to destroy the church at one point through persecution. Well, that didn't work. Because the blood of the martyrs became the seed of the church. The more they persecuted them, the more they spread out and the church just expanded in every direction.

So persecution didn't work. So what the devil decided to do, if persecution doesn't work, how about infiltration? If you can't beat them, join them, then beat them. That was the goal. Just blend in, just say the right things, talk the right talk, say the right things, carry the right Bible, wear the right T-shirt, show up, be there. They'll never know.

But they were like wolves in sheep's clothing. They put on the sheep suit, but really underneath they were a wolf. The Apostle Paul, when he was speaking to the elders there in Ephesus on the shores of Miletus, he gave them some final words of warning.

And he said to them in Acts 20, "I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among you, men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves."

Paul could see it. He knew it was around them and he was concerned about it and he warned them. And then in 2 Corinthians in chapter 11, Paul said, "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder, Satan himself transforms into an angel of light."

Jude points out how to recognize these false teachers. He highlights the characteristics that are identifiable. And this is really important. How do you identify them? Well, for one thing, he tells us they are ungodly men. Just start there. They're ungodly.

What does that mean? Ungodly, they're irreverent toward God. They don't live godly lives. They don't live in accordance with God's word. Their pursuits are ungodly. Their lifestyle is ungodly. Their language is ungodly. Their entire life is just an ungodly life. They live as though God doesn't exist because if he existed, it would definitely affect the way that they live.

But they're ungodly. So watch how they live. Not what they say, but how they live. Because how they live has to line up with what they say. And people, listen, people in this world will watch believers six days a week to find out what you're like on Sunday. They just do.

Once you say you're a Christian, they want to see it. And if you mess up, "Oh, I thought you were a Christian. How come you said that, huh? Because I'm a sinner, if you must know, saved by grace, and I've repented. And the blood of Jesus washes me. I apologize." It's just how it is.

I'm a sinner, man. God's still working. The work's not done. But not only are they ungodly, but notice this: they turn the grace of our God into lewdness and they deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. This is how their ungodliness is manifested.

They live an ungodly life, but how it carries itself out: turning the grace of God into lewdness. Lewdness, what's that? Lewdness, that's not a word you use every day. Lewdness, it's not a good word, I'll just say that.

The false teachers had redefined or turned or changed or twisted the original intention concerning clear teaching on the grace of God, what it's for and what it brings about. The false teachers made the grace of God a license to pursue a life of lewdness.

Lewdness, it's perverted. It's always linked to sexual immorality, primarily in the context that's what it refers to. They use the grace of God as a license to live sexually immoral lives. That's how they lived. "Well, we got grace. Hey bro, don't judge. Grace of God, the grace of God is over me right now. I know I'm sinning, but I have grace."

Like grace was like some insurance policy that you could just tap into. People live that way. The grace of God used as a license to live a sinful life. It's a kind of sin, by the way, lewdness is the kind of sin and depravity that characterizes much of modern society and that is flaunted almost as a badge of distinction, something to be proud of, applauded, and at times even awarded.

In the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul had to deal with this very issue concerning grace and the misuse of it and the misunderstanding of it. And you remember that he poses the question at the end of chapter 5, around verse 20. He asks the question about grace, and he talks about grace, he says "where sin abounded, grace abounded much more."

But at one point he asks the question, you go in then into chapter 6, and he says in Romans 6:1, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace might abound? Certainly not!" "How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?"

This is the question. Should we just go out and sin? Why? So that God can show how gracious he is. Wouldn't that be good? Wouldn't that be good for the glory of God just to go out and sin? "God, now that I've done all this stuff and hurt that person and did that, and now I feel... could you just show everybody how gracious you are?"

Paul says "Certainly not!" which, by the way, is the strongest language that you could use to say, "No! No way! What, have you lost your mind? No, of course not!" That's not why God gave us... listen, if you don't know this, God didn't give us grace so that we could go on sinning.

He gave us grace so we wouldn't have to go on sinning. He didn't give me grace so I could run back into sin and go, "Yeah, now I can sin and I have grace." He gave us grace so we wouldn't have to run back to sin. He gave it to us to free us from sin, not to get back into bondage to sin.

So listen, Christian, believer in Jesus Christ, called, sanctified, preserved, if you are using God's grace as a license for lewdness, you need to repent. That's not what God gave you grace for. And don't misuse it or abuse the grace of God. If you are, you don't understand what it is. You don't understand it.

Too many Christians running around with a grace card and it doesn't apply. It's like using a card that, "I'm sorry, there's nothing on this." "What do you mean there's nothing on this?" Has that ever happened to you? It's embarrassing.

People are lined up behind you. "Just wait a second, alright? Social distance, I'm just trying to... I got another card." But you know what I'm saying, people do that and they think that it works. It doesn't work that way. That's not what grace is for.

And this was the false teaching which was advocated. A license to sin was one of the things that they were teaching and they were leading others into it. And when you see Christians that are living contrary to the word of God and then claiming to be walking in grace, you realize, either the sanctification process is... it's definitely under... or you just you don't understand what grace is.

So I say it tonight, that if that's you, if you're using the grace of God as a license to live a sexually immoral life, you don't understand the grace of God and you're going to suffer the consequences of that life. God gives you grace so you don't have to.

If you think it's okay to not be married and sleep with someone who's not your wife or your husband, can I just tell you, you don't know what grace is. If you think it's okay to pursue it, to pursue pornography, to fill your brain, fill your mind with all things that are defiling and disgusting and lewd, you're not understanding the grace of God.

God gives us grace so that I don't have to go into those things. He has delivered me from the power of darkness because of grace. Grace saves me. Guys, grace sustains me too. So if you're in that place, I want to say to you, it's not too late to repent. But to repent means to turn from it, to turn from it.

And don't come to church and just "I'm just going to live like I've always lived." No, God saved you so you don't have to live that way anymore. And so, God help us. But this is what the false teachers were saying, and this is what they were promoting. And Jude is saying, "These guys, you need to watch out for them."

And the other thing that's sad, this ungodliness, which led to a life of lewdness, in turn led to, verse 4, a denial of the only God, our Lord Jesus Christ. When Jude writes "the only God, our Lord Jesus Christ," he's not referring to two different people, by the way.

He's referring to one person. In other words, Jude is affirming strongly the deity of Jesus Christ. But these false teachers were denying the deity of Jesus Christ. And that is why Jude said we have to earnestly contend for the faith.

We need to know what we believe and why we believe it and to stand on that. If ever there was a day when the church needs to be equipped to contend for the faith, it's right now. We need to know what we believe and why we believe it and live according to it. Because, guys, the fact is Jesus is coming. At some point, Jesus is coming. He's coming. He's coming.

And so we want to be living for his coming. So may God help us, equip us, to be able to contend for the faith and to be strengthened in it and to stand for it.

Father, we come to you tonight and we humble ourselves. And Lord, if we have kind of just gone through the motions or pretended or Lord have kind of drifted back into using grace as a license to sin, Lord forgive us tonight. We repent of it. Thank you for forgiveness and the blood of Christ. Lord help us not to live deceived anymore or justifying what your word doesn't justify.

But instead to live godly lives, holy lives, set apart, preserved in Christ Jesus. Lord we see the attack on the faith today within the church, within the world. Lord we don't want to be contentious, but we want to be able to contend for the faith. Lord we don't want to be belligerent or rude, but we want to be bold and truthful, speaking the truth in love, God.

So Lord we thank you for equipping us to fight this good fight, this battle. Lord we thank you that one day this battle's going to be over and we're going to be with you. Lord we're going to lay down our weapons and receive a crown. Until that day, Lord, we fight with the armor of God. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.

Narrator: Thanks for joining us today for A Daily Walk, as Pastor John Randall continued our series in Jude. This first message in the study is called "Contending for the Faith," and you can hear it again online at adailywalk.org, 1place.com, or wherever you get your podcasts. Pastor John's teachings are also accessible through our app, too. Just search for Calvary South OC in the App Store or Google Play.

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The cost is just $12. Order it today at adailywalk.org or call us at 877-242-0828. And thank you for helping us get the word out on stations like this one all across the country. People today desperately need the hope and encouragement that God's word provides, and your support helps to make that possible.

To donate to the ministry, please go to adailywalk.org or call 877-242-0828. By the way, I also want to mention Pastor John is on X and Instagram. If you are too, start following him on X at pjrandall7, on Instagram at johnprandall. We'll receive a good reminder from Jude next time on A Daily Walk with Pastor John Randall. This program is brought to you by Calvary South OC and made possible through your generous support.