Leading The Way

Host (Male): Thank you for making time in your day for Leading The Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, the passionate author of more than 50 life-changing books. As we observe our culture around us, it kind of seems like everyone has a cause that they're fighting for. For some people it's in politics, for others it's human rights, still others dive into environmental projects. The list is endless.

But God calls his people to contend for the faith, holding firmly to and proclaiming loudly the truth of God's word. So up next on this episode of Leading The Way audio, Dr. Youssef takes you into the brief book of Jude, specifically verses 3 and 4, highlighting what we're taught about contending for the faith. I hope you can listen along as Dr. Youssef begins.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Turn with me if you haven't already to Jude. We looked at verses 1 and 2 last message and we're going to look at verses 3 and 4. "Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation that we share, I felt compelled to write to you and urge you to contend for the faith. The faith that was once and for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men, whose condemnation was written about long ago, have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men who change the grace of the Lord into license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ, our sovereign Lord."

Before I get to these two verses, you must understand—please listen carefully, this is very important. In fact, everything in those two verses is of vital importance. But listen carefully. There is a world of difference between faith and the faith. Faith is what we believe. The Bible said that we are saved by faith alone. Not just by accepting a miracle or two or three. No, but placing our whole faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Savior and Lord. Faith is what we believe. You got it?

But the faith, the faith is the totality of biblical truth. The faith is God's self-revelation as it is revealed in his book, the Bible. The faith is the unfolding of God's salvation plan from Genesis to Revelation. The faith is found in the book of God. The faith is the fact that God made only one provision for salvation. Not too many roads will lead to God. Only one and his name is Jesus.

The faith is that Jesus and only Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. The faith says only obedience to the command of Jesus is the evidence of one's salvation. The faith means that the Bible is not a fairy tale once upon a time. No, no, no. It was once and for all given to us. It is a closed book. It cannot be added to or subtracted from. And that is why Jude says once delivered. Once delivered, what's that mean? Once delivered is given to us once and for all. You can't pick and choose. You can't accept this part and reject that part. It's not a smorgasbord. It's not an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet down at the corral.

No. In fact, Galatians 1:8, Paul said about that faith, he said, "If we, if we or an angel from heaven should preach another gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned." Please hear me right. Just as God once and for all created all the stars in the galaxies and placed them in their orbit and he gave them names. Just as God once and for all named all the stars, so is the Bible. Once and for all.

I know that we live in a time when 80% of Christians—listen to me, I'm not talking about the world outside, I'm not worried about them, God is going to take care of them. I do preach the gospel to them. But 80% of Christians in America do not read the Bible. I found some astonishing statistics when I was doing the research for my book, How to Read the Bible as if Your Life Depends on It. And when I was writing this book and I did the research, I was absolutely shocked to the core. 80% don't read the Bible. No wonder only 4% of Americans have a biblical worldview.

But Jude is even saying more than that. He's saying the faith is a trust. It's a trust. And we are custodians of that trust. We are custodians of it. We are stewards of it. Now, can you feel that weight of responsibility? Can you feel it? And that is why Jude did not begin by telling us to contend for the faith. He didn't begin there. He began by telling us about this incomprehensible—it really is, an inexplicable privilege that God has given us.

Namely that we are compelled, that we are beloved, that we are kept and that we are blessed. And after he shows us the incredible lavishing of God's amazing grace, then he says contend for that faith. Please listen to me. It's after you understand all of these privileges, can you feel the weight of responsibility of that privilege? But beloved, listen to me, the problem with all of this is that there's a danger, huge danger of handing the next generation a modified, molested, and counterfeit faith.

Question: do we have to be contentious in our contending for the faith? Not at all. Not at all, not one bit. We do the contending for the faith with love in our hearts. With love in our hearts. No bitterness, no hatred, no anger. That's not who we are. That is alien to our heavenly blood that's flowing in our veins. We contend for the truth with a smile on our face and the love in our hearts. Listen to me please. If we do not love them, why in the world would we even contend for the faith at all? Just let them perish in sin.

But because of our love for God and for the gospel and for his word, because of our love for people, we want to see them truly saved, not just churched. We contend for what? The faith. And if and when they totally reject our efforts, we just shake the dust off our feet and hand them over to God. We can't do a thing about it. But you cannot contend for the faith if you don't know the faith, if you don't love the faith, and if you don't live the faith. It is only when you know, love, and live the faith can you truly contend for the faith.

Another question: where are we and with whom should we contend for the faith? Not with the atheists and the agnostics. No, no, no. They deny the faith. We patiently need to explain it to them. It's not the Muslims, the Hindus, the Buddhists, that's a counterfeit faith. Ah, but we contend for the faith with those who sneak into churches like the serpent of old and try to do an inside job in the church. We contend for the faith with those who may be in pulpits but they are preaching partial truth.

We contend for the faith with those who may sneak into a Bible-believing church and for the purpose of changing, modifying, falsifying, or bringing doubt to the truth. Why? Because if we let them go unchallenged, it is only a matter of time before they can cause a whole lot of harm, a whole lot of harm. I want to give you a couple of examples from history so you understand even what is happening today that you see in the news all over Europe and North America.

For the first 500 years of the Christian faith, the church of Jesus Christ was plagued by all sorts of heresies. I mean, I can name just from top of my head at least six or seven. These heresies had to do with the divinity of Christ, with the authority of the scripture, and with the Holy Trinity and on and on and on. Please listen to me. Whenever the gospel is preached, Satan is always at the heels of the preaching of the gospel trying to falsify it. Test me on that.

And so those early days of the Christian church, there were some who valiantly contended for the faith and stood and some lost their lives to depose the heretics. And sometimes these heretics are cult-like, they leave those countries and they go somewhere else as a cult. And so there was a heresy known as Nestorianism because it was founded by a man named Nestor. And it was just to give you the bottom line, they did not believe in the divinity of Christ. And then they felt pushed out of some churches in the Christian land which all of the Middle East was a Christian land at that time.

And some of them went and lived in northern Arabia. Christian heretics known as the Nestorians. And there in northern Arabia they influenced a man named Muhammad. And now we have the religion of Islam which denies the divinity of Christ because they learned it from a Christian heretic. Not only that but fourth and fifth century, there was, as I said, many heresies, Sabellianism and all of them. But there was a special heresy that flourished in North Africa.

It was started by a woman. That hasn't anything to do with it because other heresies were started by men. That's not the issue. It's called Montanism, the Montanist movement. Invaded the church in North Africa with vengeance. What did they teach? Listen carefully. They taught that the Bible is not a closed book, that God can still speak prophetically today—this is in the middle of 600s—and it's equal in authority to the prophets and the apostles.

And it spread throughout North Africa. Remember North Africa is where St. Augustine came from. He came from the country of Tunisia. When I say North Africa, I'm talking about Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria. Not heeding the warning in the book of Revelation at the beginning and at the end, never to add, never to subtract from the word of God. Yet these heretics were invaded those churches in North Africa with vengeance.

I have tremors when I hear somebody whether on line or on television says, "I have a prophetic word, I have a prophetic word." Oh my gosh, I get tremors. This Montanist heresy, as I said, spread throughout North Africa all the way until the middle of the 600 AD. North Africa had well over 50,000 churches by the middle of the 600s. 50,000, that's the most conservative estimates. And so when the hordes of Arabian Muslims came and invaded North Africa and they said, "Oh, Allah spoke through a prophet," they said, "Oh, let's listen to it."

And within 30 years, every one of these tens of thousands of churches turned into mosques. We're seeing it with our eyes now. Do you watch the news coming from Europe and even here in the States and North America? We're seeing it before our eyes happening now. Some pathetic prostrate churches in Europe and North America are accommodating. And this happened because believers in time gone by refused to contend for the faith. And they allowed false teachers, false preachers to flourish without any opposition. They got away with it in these locations.

Verse 4 again. "Certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you." Beloved, the tragedy today is that so many Christian believers who have no discernment. If you want to cry to God for something, cry that God would give us discernment among the believers. Why? Because history is littered with examples of how Christians were snookered by falsehood again and again and again.

Many Christians thought that out of the kindness of their heart, let's listen to the other side. Other side? There is no other side. Are you with me? There is no other side. There is only Jesus. And before they knew it, they were taken over. Oh, we have seen one denomination after another. Even in my lifetime, my involvement with these, one denomination after another fell into disbelief of the truth. But it all started by non-discerning believers who out of the kindness of their heart, they said, "Well let's listen to the false teachers."

Think about it this way. Out of the 100 colleges, the first 100 colleges in America, the first 100, 88 of them were founded to prepare young men for ministry. This includes Harvard. And Harvard now has 40 chaplains, the head chaplain is an atheist. Harvard was founded in 1640 for training men for gospel ministries. Here's the three things that they had the students do, three things. First of all, the students had to know the eternal God through Jesus. Secondly, they have to pray because that's the only way they're going to have wisdom. And thirdly, they had to study the scripture twice a day.

Oh I can go on and tell you about Yale and Princeton or even Emory University. Oh my beloved friends, please listen to me. The non-discerning Christians think that one preacher is as good as another, that one teacher is as good as another, that one communicator is as good as the other. The truth is the apostates are great communicators. They really are. They are charming and they are oh so sweet. Three things that I lack.

And oh they get taken by their charisma and their personality and how being great communicators they are, but slowly but surely all is replaced from the preaching of the gospel with false gospels. You know the story of the frog in the kettle? The water was tepid but the heat was on, slowly. And because it was a slow heat, the frog boiled in the water because it didn't jump out as soon as she felt the heat.

The frogs are in the kettle and the kettle is boiling. The word Jude uses here about this "slipped in," the word "slipped in," stealthily. They sneaked in. It's the word actually used for an alligator. If you see an alligator lying on the bank of the river, you don't know if it's a log or because it's still, very still. And without a ripple, they slip into the water. Oh, outwardly they appear so loving, so kind, but inwardly they're full of themselves. Outwardly they say all the right words but inwardly they do not fear God. And that is why Paul said in 2 Timothy 3:5, he described them that they have the form of godliness but they denied its power.

Oh they appear to be so caring, so kind, so sympathetic, and oh they are gifted. But the poison drips, drips, drips, drips into the souls of the unsuspecting. Now before I run out of time, I need to tell you something else of equal importance. Apostasy did not start in the 21st century. As I already told you, even the first five centuries of Christian faith. But apostasy really started in the Garden of Eden. That's where it started when Eve knew what God said, they knew God's word, but she allowed Satan to plant the seeds of doubt. Seeds of doubt in her mind.

"Do you really think that the Bible is for today? Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm not against the Bible. It's a great book. But it's for bygone days. But now, now we know more because we have more scientific knowledge and understanding than they had back then." Every word that I just uttered came from the mouth of one of those apostates. Jude said they pervert the grace of God. Oh beloved, listen to me. I read some years ago, less than actually 15 years ago, a very prominent pastor started this called hyper-grace to put it mildly, just say sin all to your heart's content because grace will take care of it.

When people use the grace of God to rationalize sin, it is not the grace of God. God's grace is unmerited favor, not license to sin. God's grace puts you on your knees before God, not fills you with arrogance. God's grace causes us to want to please God, not tempt God. God's grace restrains us, not gives us unbridled passion. God's grace causes me to blush and feel shame when I sin, not proud of my sin. God's grace leads me to daily purify myself, not fill me with perversion. That's the grace of God.

Now as I conclude this message today, I want to take a moment before our close to speak to that one person. To that one person who's being deceived or about to be deceived into doubting the authority of the word of God. That one person who's about to be deceived into doubting the relevance of the word of God to their life, what's going on in their life now, today.

Speak to that person who may just be tired of getting convicted by the word of God and looking for some preacher, looking for some Bible teacher to tell them it's okay to be in sin. I want you to know that there is power in the blood of Christ. There is strength in the name of the Lord. And he wants to save from the gutter-most to the uttermost because he wants you to be a new person in Christ.

Host (Male): A challenge from Dr. Michael Youssef to step beyond the doubts that may have rooted in your life and stand firm in God's grace, answering his call to live out and to declare the truth in your day-to-day. Thank you for listening to this episode of Leading The Way.

You know, just about every day Dr. Youssef and his international team receive emails and cards and local ministry team reports detailing stories of lives that Leading The Way is impacting by passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth. And recently Leading The Way received a testimony from a remote place in the Middle East that brought so much encouragement to the entire worldwide team. So we want to summarize that so you can appreciate that and be motivated as well.

Jamal left Islam after seeing firsthand the violence it facilitates and realizing through the teaching of Leading The Way that the Quran's teaching could not originate from a loving God. In and through finding Jesus, Jamal experienced love, peace, and truth. After answering his call to follow Christ, Leading The Way field team members began and continue helping Jamal with discipleship training. That way he can reach his family and he can use his skills to spread the gospel of Christ and further impact the world.

Friends, please pray along with Leading The Way for Jamal to fulfill his desire to share Jesus with his lost family and those in his career path and nation. Stories like Jamal's are multiplying. God is using Leading The Way to reach the lost in this neighborhood and in neighborhoods just like it all around the world. And we would love for you to learn more. Consider standing in generosity with Dr. Youssef.

Here's how you can do that. Give us a call, 866-626-4356, or check out this month's special giving opportunity online, that's ltw.org, ltw.org. And you can write to us as well. Please know how we love getting your letters in the mail. You can write to Leading The Way at this address: Post Office Box 20100, Atlanta, Georgia 30325. Once again, that's Post Office Box 20100, Atlanta, Georgia 30325. This program is furnished by Leading The Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth around the world.