Contending For The Faith
Christian, how important is contending for the faith in your life? How does it rank compared to things like tolerance? I was listening to this sermon from Voddie Baucham the other day where he made some good points and observations about the church in general. He’s far from the only one who has noticed how much our culture has infiltrated the church. I highly suggest listening to this sermon.
The sermon is on Jude 1-4. Here are those verses:
Jud 1:1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:
Jud 1:2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
Jud 1:3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
Jud 1:4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
—Jude 1-4
One of the main issues he addresses is how we make false dichotomies by saying we shouldn’t talk about something because of some other thing being more important. A common example is that Christians shouldn’t argue about what is true about the Bible because we should be out sharing the gospel, since the salvation of souls is more important. Well, passages and books like these in the Bible really knock that claim down. God is using Jude to say that we SHOULD contend for the faith, which means we actually need to have a grasp about what our faith is and where it comes from. We find these answers from God in the Bible. We can and should share the gospel, but if we don’t take the time to check that believers in our spheres of influence know what the gospel actually is and who is truly responsible for the salvation of souls (God), then we aren’t being responsible. If my brother Joe Shmoe is sharing an incomplete gospel or talking about a God of his own creation, then it is my responsibility to tell him. Not because I’m better or I want to argue, but because we’re called to be contenders and defenders of the faith and God’s Word itself. Staying silent for the sake of some false unity or tolerance is following the world, not God. We need to be about the latter. If we aren’t, we shouldn’t be surprised by false teachers and CINOs (Christians In Name Only) influencing our churches. Again, please take the time to listen to the sermon above. It’s only 28 minutes (or less if you speed it up), which is not a big chunk of your day. Just saying…