CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH
“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” (Jude v.3)
INTRODUCTION
A. Many speakers and writers became fixated on the word “contend,”
and became caustic crusaders.
B. That there is a danger of false teachers infiltrating the body of Christ
is not denied—“certain men have crept in unnoticed.”
C. However, many good sheep dogs have been killed by those who see a
wolf behind every bush. Let me explain this metaphor: Paul exhorted
the Ephesian elders to watch out for the flock because wolves
would decimate the sheep (Act 20:28-30). The sheep dogs are
preachers. Obsessed with the danger of false teachers, some leaders
take “sound shots,” meaning that they shoot at any rustling of
the grass or bushes, hoping to kill a wolf. Sometimes it’s a sheep dog
scurrying the countryside for stray sheep.
D. In this sermon, we will seek to do five things:
1. Establish that the security of the believer is a
biblical doctrine.
2. Identify “the faith.”
3. Examine two basic attacks on the faith.
4. Discover four things which contending for the faith is not.
5. Identify the five things Jude gives for contending for the faith.
I. THE SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER
A. Jude addressed the epistle to those who are called, sanctified, and KEPT in Jesus (v.1). The KJV and
NKJV have “preserved.”
B. The security of the believer and “once saved always saved” are not synonymous.
1. Saving faith is dynamic, not static (Jude v.5; Psa 106:12, 24 [they believed and then stopped
believing].
2. The same judgment that awaits fallen angels and Sodom and Gomorrah awaits fallen
believers (Jude vv.6-7; 2 Pet 2:17-22).
3. We are guarded by a dynamic faith, not a dead faith (1 Pet 1:3-5; 1 Pet 2:21-24).
4. A faith that is not working is not faith (Gal 5:6).
II. THE FAITH ONCE FOR ALL DELIVERED
A. “The faith” is about what God has done and is doing:
1. He saved us by his grace (Titus 3:4-7)
2. He keeps us by his power (Jude vv.1&24)
B. God does not impose his grace upon anyone (Rom 5:2)
1. We access grace by faith.
2. We stand in grace by faith.
III. TWO ATTACKS AGAINST THE FAITH
A. The first was legalism (Gal 5:1-6).
B. The second was license (Jude v.4; Rom 3:5-8).
IV. WHAT CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH IS NOT
A. It is not about scientific apologetics, as valuable as that discipline is.
B. It is not about being guardians of the gate (3 John vv. 9-10)
C. It is not about playing God (Jude v. 9).
D. It is not about debating the “issues” (Jude v. 17-19 ; Titus 3:9-11).
V. JUDE’S FIVE-POINT DEFENSE OF THE FAITH (vv. 20-23)
A. Building
B. Praying
C. Waiting
D. Snatching
E. Hating
CONCLUSION
A. He is able: “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling or falling into sin, and to present you
unblemished [blameless and faultless] in the presence of His glory with triumphant joy and unspeakable
delight, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power,
before all time and now and forever. Amen.” (Jude vv.24-25, Amplified Bible).
B. “ May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you” (Jude v.2).
