Contend For The Faith

CONTEND FOR THE FAITH

1) Contend for the faith.

Jude 1:3, "Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints."

To contend means to put yourself forward, assert, state, declare. We are to put ourselves out there, we are to put ourselves forward for the faith. We are to state and declare our faith to others and we are to assert ourselves when there is something that sets itself up against the faith.

One of the meanings of contend is compete. We are in competition against falsehood and unbelief. If you read on in Jude you'll see that there were men who had slipped into their congregation and taught falsehoods and liberal ideals. We will have to contend against that too. There are a lot of different belief systems out there-all of which are in competition with the Christian faith.

In 2006, at the "Building a Covenant for a New America" conference , Barak Obama talked about 'a new America'. He said, "Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation. At least not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation and a nation of non-believers."

Instead of America's fundamental belief in one God there is now a belief in many gods. This is what Ken Ham called a shift from being an Acts 2 type culture to an Acts 17 type culture. In his book, Gospel Reset, Ken talks about Peter's sermon in Acts 2 and the amazing outcome-3,000 people were baptized into Christ that day (41).

Ken asks, 'wouldn't you like to see that happen in our day'? He makes an interesting point about how Peter's audience already had a foundational knowledge of God, the scriptures and about sin. His point was that Peter's audience was at a level of understanding that most of the people we would be talking to aren't.

Many people know of God and Jesus but they don't know much else. Some have gone to church before and know some things but most of the people we would be trying to build relationships with and present the gospel to would not have the foundational level of understanding that Peter's audience did.

Not that Peter didn't have anything to contend with. They still needed to be convinced that Jesus, the one they crucified, was the fulfillment of the prophecies. But he didn't need to lay any foundational groundwork regarding who God was and instruction about the authenticity of his word.

Fast forward to today and you can make the argument that just a few generations ago you would have an easier time with your audience than you would today. A few generations ago there was prayer in schools and places were closed on Sundays because more people were either in church or respected the day as such. Today, you don't have that regard for God or the church so our work is harder. It involves more questions and more groundwork to be laid than would be true just a few generations ago, let alone 2,000 years ago with Peter's sermon.

Bruce Willis said, "With what we know about science, anyone who thinks at all probably doesn't believe in fire and brimstone anymore. So, organized religion has lost that voice to hold up their moral hand." Today, with the theory of evolution and big bang theory being taught, you have a scenario where God is forgotten and replaced with science or some other belief system. So we are more like what Ken Ham would call an Acts 17 culture.

In Acts 17, Paul was in Athens. Verse 16 says he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. We should be that way too. It should greatly distress us that our country is full of the worship of other gods. And it should compel us to want to introduce people to the one, true God.

Acts 17:22-23, "Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you."

I thought it was interesting that Paul didn't attack these other gods directly, he started with what they had put in place and used it as a catalyst to introduce them to the one, true God. And if you read on you see where Paul started from the beginning by saying, 'The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth'. Paul had to remove the wrong foundation so the right one could be laid. He started by highlighting the God of creation.