Earnestly Contend For The Faith

When Jude began his letter, his original intention is to write a general letter regarding the “salvation that Christians share”. But, he modified & narrowed his concern to urging the believers to “contend of the faith”. While he used the words salvation and faith he was touching on the same Christian message; although the different words highlighted the matters in the Church to which he was writing. Within the current society where it is very complicated to understand if an individual is truly call by God because we at times seldom preach the need for the Holy Spirit which is the best way we can truly determine a calling of God.
His writings resonate with true believers. Within the scriptures it direct believers to obtain the spirit of God to locate the hidden things. One must also include false prophets as something which is hidden and can only be brought to light by the working of the inner man along with the spirit of God.

The scriptures said that even the very elect can be fooled by false prophets. Hence we must always go along with our inner man when it seems something is not right with a teaching or a sermon. People should know the scriptures are written based on the events of the time. We cannot use the same context in Genesis as we do in Galatians. The dispensation is from a very different time frame.
The old testament (Genesis to Malachi) is a building up of the coming messiah while Acts to Revelations covers what the Messiah left for us while he was on this planet. Matthew to the 1st few chapters in Acts is the fulfillment of the coming Messiah. Some things that could potentially cause confusion is when the scriptures is preach without the segmented thought that all parts of the scriptures are not meant for us today.

The disciples were told by Jesus that the Holy Spirit will lead them into all truth.
Apostates cater to the emotions and not the spirit. In Acts 8:9-24, we discovered Simon Magus or Simon the Sorcerer who accepted the Messiah but didn’t received the Holy Spirit. Once he met the other disciples who laid hands on the believers to acquire the spirit he thought he could provide the disciples a few dollars to get the same power. Here you had a guy that was trying to get notoriety based around power hungry not because he was called by God.

Undoubtedly impossible to have a Christian walk without having the Holy Spirit. There is certainly too many impostors preaching for reasons that aren’t Godly. Philippians 1:15 said there are all types preaching the gospel. Numerous reasons are not Godly!

Jude New King James Version (NKJV)
Greeting to the Called
1 Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,
To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:
2 Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
Contend for the Faith
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. 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago 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.
Old and New Apostates
5 But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; 7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
8 Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. 9 Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10 But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. 11 Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
Apostates Depraved and Doomed
12 These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; 13 raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
14 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, 15 to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
Apostates Predicted
16 These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. 17 But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: 18 how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. 19 These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.
Maintain Your Life with God
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
22 And on some have compassion, making a distinction; 23 but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
So, as a result of the apostasy or heresy that’s sneaked in unawares within the side door, certainly in to the Church as a whole, (the body of Christ), and attempting to do the same in just about every local church (the only real visible and authoritative body of Christ in our day), by ungodly people working to minimize sin, live the way of the world, and deny the Lordship of our Savior… we will need to earnestly and intensely fight and do whichever is necessary to defend the truth and purity for the faith in all its fullness… The faith that is founded upon the finished work of Jesus Christ and that which He Himself has left us, and made provision for with His own gifts, that we might be built up and sustained in the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
God willing, we will be looking over the next weeks at that faith that’s once (for all) delivered unto the saints. We’ll begin with some practical instruction given to us here in the book of Jude about earnestly contending for this faith. And then, God willing, we will direct our attention to some of what we refer to as the fundamentals of the faith. There are some things that Christians can agree to disagree on and move on. However, there are some things that you cannot disagree on and still be part of the same faith. Some things are simply essential and fundamental to our faith and from these there can be no wavering.