Keep On Contending for the Same Old Truth

Transcript

GR 2293
June 28, 2020
Keep on Contending for the Same Old Truth
Jude 3-4
Gil Rugh


We are going to the book of Jude. In the Old Testament we are reminded of the conditions in the world and what was being experienced by the nation Israel and the impact going on among nations. In the New Testament we have less of that. Jesus in the gospels has some interaction with rulers but they are primarily religions rulers. In the book of Acts we see Paul interacting with some and we have references. But the ministry of the word of God was being carried on in challenging and often very difficult times. We look at the world around us, the days we are going through, and we are taken back and we say I didn't know that our country would have such turmoil and would see this going on the way it is. So I have put a little chart together, you can look at it on the screen, of the dates of the Caesars for the New Testament, just so you can see a little bit. You can get on the internet and find out about these men and you find out they are not very nice men. The last one is probably the one we are most familiar with because he is infamous for his wickedness, vileness, Nero, and he is from 54-68 A.D. And Peter, Paul with pretty strong traditions, pretty accepted that they both died at the hands of Nero toward the end of his reign, which helps us put some dates together. But the preceding men like Claudius, Gaius who was also know as Caligula, we read about the lives of these men and what is going on. It is not a fair world, it is not a just world. If Jude is writing as most commentators seem to project during the time of Nero we'd be in about the mid-60s. You can see we are getting near the end of Nero's reign and the further along he got the worse he got. That's why you come to having the execution of Paul. We leave Paul, after 2 Timothy, his last letter, he says the process that will result in his execution is already underway so just a matter of time.

These are difficult times and yet we are going to look at the book of Jude and Jude is going to exhort us and his readers, and we are his readers today, to be focused on the truth of God and concern for battling for the purity of that truth. And I was just reminded as I was working through Jude again that what God calls us as His people to be focused on in this world of turmoil is not the turmoil of the world, it is on the truth that God has entrusted to us. And we are to be engaged in the battles, and that's what the verses we are going to look at call us for, to contend earnestly for the faith. Nero is going crazy and the empire is in turmoil, believers are being executed. Don't you think we should try to get involved in some way and make a difference? Well what we make a difference is we do what no one else in the world can do—we bring the truth of God to a world in turmoil, we bring the message of God's peace to a world that cannot have peace without Him. And the most important battle we fight is the battle to be sure that this truth does not get altered, changed or corrupted in any way. It is the pure word of God that is necessary to nourish the soul, it is the purity of the gospel that brings salvation to the lost. With the media we have today and the internet it seems like we can be bombarded 24 hours a day with the world's troubles, and pretty soon we take the world's troubles on as our troubles as believers and think this is what we ought to be about. What will happen in the next election if … We have to get involved and then the church pretty soon becomes an arm of “racial actions, social justice.” Understand, fightings, rumors of wars, turmoil… James writes about this in his New Testament epistle, they come from within. Where do the fightings, the wars come from? They come from within. What's wrong with the turmoil and the people that are acting irrationally? Well, they have no peace in their hearts, and it must be someone's fault and they won't bow and acknowledge it's me, my sin, my rebellion against God, and I have no peace in my heart. And I'm convinced if I do this, if I make change . . . What will be the result of the change? I don't know, it will be better. But that's the course of the world in everything, isn't it? If we fix this out here then my life will be happy. So Jude is addressing those matters.

He introduced the book in the first two verses, then in verse 3 he picks up with a word he has already used two times in those first verses. He is writing “to those who are the called,” verse 2, “beloved in God the Father.” “Beloved in God the Father” at the end of verse 1, and then in verse 2, “May mercy and peace and love,” all a form of the same word—agape or ‘agapao,’ that word for love. We are loved, at the end of verse 1, “in God the Father.” We belong to Him and we want that love to be multiplied. And as His love for us is multiplied and His care for us, then we begin to manifest and demonstrate that love in our relationship to one another, that's what binds us together. Remember what Jesus said that last night with His disciples? By this all men will know that you are My disciples, by the fact you have love for one another. That is this love.

Now he is going to start out in verse 3 and write to them as the “beloved,” you are the ones that God loves and I love you; God loves you, I love you. It's been somewhat trivialized where people will say God loves you. They leave that hanging out there as just some maybe sentimental idea—doesn't that make you feel good. What would they think if we told them God hates you? You wouldn't tell people that. Well, the Bible says it is true, it says we are enemies. But God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son. I'm not against telling people God does love you, but I have to explain what that means. He loves you in the context you recognize your hopeless, lost condition. In your present state you are at war with God, you are His enemy. But He did something to make it possible for you not just to become His friend but to become His child. He had His only begotten, unique Son come and die for you. So Jude started out writing, “Beloved,” you are the ones I love, you are the ones that God loves. Verse 1, the end of the verse said “beloved in God,” you are loved by God, and of course I love you.

Back up to 1 John 4, note what he says, we'll pick up with verse 7. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” You'll note that to have true biblical love for another person it takes a relationship with God. That's an evidence that you have been born of God. There is a love that the world has, but this true self-sacrificing agape love is produced in the heart, it's a fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. The fruit of the Spirit is, the first one mentioned, love. That's what He produces, that becomes the identifying mark of a believer, that's what enables us to stick together and be bound together. It's not our race, it's not our politics, it's not our views, it is the love we have because God has produced it in our hearts and the pressure just reveals whether it is there or not.

Verse 8, “The one who does not love does not know God.” Why? Because this is God's basic character, it is one of His attributes, it's not His only attribute, but God is love. How could I say to become a partaker of the divine nature, not that I became divine, divinity, but the character of God was reproduced in me when He caused me to be born again as His child. That's true for each one of us as believers, that's the futility of trying to get the unbeliever to function like a believer. Well, we belong to the same physical nation, we're all citizens of this country, we should love one another. There is a level of appreciation and working together and benefits that come, all of that, but the true foundational love that stands through the pressures, the turmoils, the hurts, even the unfairnesses that come, has to be deeper than that. This love of God is an eternal love, it's an endless love, it is not changed because of a bump in the road. We say, what holds our country together? It begins to disintegrate rather rapidly, rather quickly. The love that we have from God.

“By this the love of God,” verse 1 John 4:9, “the one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us” or unto us, “that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us,” He is the initiator, “and sent His Son to be the propitiation,” that word that means to turn the wrath of God away from us. We want to be honest with people, all of us were under the wrath of God until that wrath was turned away from us when we placed our faith in Christ. And the penalty that stood between God and us had been paid, not by us but by God. It was applied to us and we became the recipients of the benefit of what Christ had done when we placed our faith in Him. “Beloved, if God so loved us,” verse 11, “we ought also to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.” Now don't get confused here because someone has a sentimental feeling, has an emotional experience going to church, that means I must belong to God. I have love, I feel it. This is a love that transcends feelings. Not against feelings but this love is not focused on feelings, there is another love, ‘phileo,’ phileo love, we have it in words like Philadelphia. It's not a bad love, it's not a less beneficial love, but this is a unique love. This is a love that acts for the benefit of the other person. It's not expecting something in return, it's not looking for a return. What did God get when He got you, what did He get when He got me? He is the all-sufficient God and He expressed in the Old Testament, if I had a need would I ask you? What could I add to God, what could I bring to God? God needed someone to love. Well, there are three persons comprising the one God -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That love that was His as an attribute eternally was expressed within the Godhead eternally, it is an eternal love between the persons of the godhead, He didn't need me to be complete. That's what this love is.

This goes on, you can read down through this. Verse 16, “God is love.” “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him,” there is no other realm. When I find myself falling out of love with God's people, I better stop, something is wrong. This is an enduring love, abides. That's the realm in which we live, that's the word you would talk about when you told somebody, this is where I live, this is my abode we might say a little bit anachronistically. This is the realm in which we live. Well, you don't know, they didn't have a good experience with them. In church they didn't do this for me, nobody paid attention to me. This word is not looking for that. What did I do for them, what did I bring to them, what could I do more for them? This is what has been expressed.

This is background for what Jude is talking about as we come to his letter. It's the way it begins and as we'll see it's the way it ends. They are the loved ones, his letter is written on this base. Verse 19, “We love, because He first loved us.” Verse 21, “This commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.” That's why I say this love gets entangled and sometimes you don't know whether … You can use Jude as an example, he's writing as the ones that I love or the ones that God loves because they are entwined, they are the same ones. I'm writing to you that God loves so much and I love so much because the one who loves God should love his brother also.

So you can come back to Jude. We read this word like beloved and we just write over. One of the new translations, I think it's the New International Version, but some others may do that but I think that's the one particularly, they translated this dear friends, dear friends. Anybody who is writing their commentary on the basis said that's too weak, it misses the point of what he has talked about in verse 1, you are beloved in God, you are the ones that God loves. And I want the love to be multiplied to you, God's love to be showering you. You’re just aware, this envelops me, it's the realm in which I live, and it's the realm in which I live with you and so I have that same love for you that God loves. Don't I want to love what God loves and hate what God hates? If God loves you, I want to love you, too. And that goes this way (horizontal direction), too. While I'm at it I may as well get all this I can. You have to love me, too. And you go out and say, I don’t know, that was a pretty poor sermon. You have to love me anyway, I'm not getting you ready for what is coming, but … It's true, isn't it? How quickly we just think well, that's over.

So Jude 3, “ Beloved,” those that I love so much, “while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation.” So Jude had been preparing himself, he is getting ready to write them a letter about their common salvation, that salvation they share in common. That's connected to that word love we just read. There is only one salvation, there is only one God who brings the only salvation, so I was going to write you about our salvation. He doesn't say what about it, but to probably encourage them, to stir them up. Our common salvation, that's the salvation God provided in Christ. These early writers of scripture didn't tire of talking about their salvation, didn't get old.

Back up to 2 Peter1, Peter is nearing the end of his life, God has made clear to him he is going to give his life as a martyr. He is going to testify to the end, and in verse 12 he says, “Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.” I know and you know them so well, you are firmly, solidly planted but I still was going to want to write and remind you. And I consider it right as long as I am in this earthly dwelling to stir you up by way of reminder. Then in verse 14 is when he says I know that my physical death is imminent, the Lord made that clear to me. He hasn't lost focus. You don't get some kind of sentimental of what it's going to mean to leave behind. Peter was a married man, we find that in the gospels when Jesus has to heal his mother-in-law of an illness. What about kids? Paul says all the other disciples, apostles were married. What about their families? I'm not saying our families aren't important, but they're not most important. Let me tell you what it's going to be like. My kids have gotten to the age and I have some grandkids and it's really weighing on me … What's on my heart is to make sure you have these truths so … That's just to be so much in your mind that's the first thing you think about, how precious the Lord is, the salvation that we have, and so on. This is the salvation, the only salvation.

Take you to one more verse, 1 Timothy 2, and this is a good reminder for us where we are today and the turmoil in our country. “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.” So there is turmoil, tranquility, the tranquility that enabled us to meet together. If it's not the virus, it's the turmoil in the streets. Where will it stop? We've noted some of that, some of them are adamantly opposed to anyone who would be opposed to homosexual relationship, I've shared some of that with you. We think they are rioting in the streets for racial justice, and yet the constitution that they have or whatever, and what's most important is we do away with those who are opposed to same-sex families. Wait a minute, we lose the opportunity, we take for granted… we get up and decide whether we will go to church or not (it's limited now). We are open with our teaching the Word … how long will that be tolerated? Peter and Paul, Jude, they are concerned about this truth and we don't take it for granted. God wants there to be an environment, that's His desire, where the truth can go out. He doesn't delight in stepping back and turning men and women over to their sinful desires so that the situation in that country … There is an element… I've showed you the Roman Empires, but you know the Roman peace enabled Paul to travel from country to country and bring the Gospel, so there were good things about the iron boot of Rome, so to speak. That empire of iron that crushed everything but enabled Paul to declare I am a Roman citizen and I have rights and exercise those rights, that was a blessing. He is going to die at the hands of a Roman emperor unjustly, but he recognizes the hand of God in this and these are maybe things that we need to keep in mind. We have been blessed as a country, we take it for granted, then when we begin to lose it we can panic.

But he's talking about the salvation, God “desires,” 1 Timothy 2:4, “all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave Himself as a ransom for all.” That's the common salvation we have. He's not talking about just a general idea, we're all people of faith, let's get the people of faith together. That's a meaningless concept, it's worse than meaningless, it is a lie. There is only one true faith. We're not joining together and if we all believe the same lies that's good to go. There is one God, the God revealed in scripture, the God of Israel, the God who has revealed Himself in Old and New Testament. There is “one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Where does that leave the Muslims, where does that leave liberal Protestants, where does that leave Catholics? Well, we mix this up. What about the Hindus? We want to be a pluralistic society, with all religions. I'm not advocating one religion, but I only advocate one and I believe the others are lies and errors. I believe the closer we are to biblical foundations the stronger we are as a country, as we see in the founding of our country. I don't believe that most of those founders were biblical Christians, but there were biblical principles that were accepted. They were the facts of life as God created us, and when they are lost there is turmoil.

But when he talks about a common salvation, come back to Jude 1, that's the one he is talking about. We have to tell people there is one God, the God of Christians, the God of Israel that Israel is in a state of rejecting at this time and so under His judgment. There is only one God, there is only one mediator between God and men. There is only one way to have a relationship with God, that's through faith in Jesus Christ. Now there are those that we get closer to, what we call maybe broadly Christendom or Christians in the broad sense, all the Protestants and all the Catholics that generally claim to believe Jesus Christ. But that's what Jude wants to talk about, we have to narrow it down further.

“Beloved, while I was making every effort,” back in Jude 3, “to write about our common salvation.” You have to know what the common salvation is if you understand. Common salvation. “I felt the necessity to write to you appealing,” I was under pressure, pressure from God, pressure from the circumstances that you are in. And they go together, God often uses the circumstances, the situation, to bring the kind of pressure that moves us to certain action. Jude is going to write under the inspiration of the scripture and God used the situation that the believers he is writing to, and Jude recognized that. He realized he needed to move beyond and into another area that is related, the purity of the teaching and the purity of the practice that goes with the teaching, because they were accepting people as genuine part of our fellowship whose doctrine was corrupted and whose practice was corrupted. So it has to be dealt with.

So “I felt the necessity to write to you appealing,” that word is the word we have in the gospels, we think of it with the Holy Spirit. I will send another Comforter, the paraclete, a Greek word from ‘parakaleo’… 'para,’ to be alongside; ‘’kaleo,’ the verb to call. The one who comes alongside of to give aid, to give help, to give encouragement, to give strength. That's what that word ‘appealing’ is, to encourage you, to appeal to you and to give you comfort and strength so “that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.” There was a necessity here, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing, there is an urgency about this, this has to be dealt with. Because he said there is one God, there is one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus. If in any way we are moved from that or the practice that goes with that, and you cannot disassociate them, you will end up with empty talk. So there is a real necessity and urgency for me to appeal, to bring this earnest exhortation to you, “that you contend earnestly for the faith.”

There is what this little word from God and from Jude is about, you must contend earnestly for the faith, I am the one to exhort you to do that, to challenge you to do that. And it's really the Holy Spirit doing it since He is the one inspiring Jude. This is the word from God, you must contend earnestly, to contend, contend strenuously. We get a word from this verb, ‘agonize,’ we just carry it over into English, ‘agonizo’ would be the verb form. You can hear it, agony, agonize. What does it mean? It means I was agonizing over that decision, you mean well, it wasn't just I thought about it in passing; no, I am pouring my soul into this, blood, sweat and tears went into this. The way we would say it, I was contending, I want you to contend earnestly, zealously for the faith. The faith? That body of truth that we believe, that's why we call it the faith. We have our own personal faith, but our faith is directed toward what? We have faith in the word of God, so this becomes and is called ‘the faith’ because this is what we believe. You need to pour your soul with zeal into the conflict for the faith. That word ‘agonize’ would be used of a military conflict, an athletic contest, that kind of serious conflict, battle. And we are in a present tense here. The danger that can happen, we talk about it with a new believer, a new believer comes in and he is all cranked up and he is confronting people and he is talking to his family and over time… We're excited to get into the Word, then we get into the Word and we learn a lot about the Word and then pretty soon, well, it's not necessary for us to be involved that much. And so then we find less and less the kind of earnest passion for the Word that we once had.

That seems to be what Jude wants them to know. This is serious, the battle hasn't stopped. That's why he uses the present tense, that you keep on earnestly contending for the faith. Not saying you haven't been doing it. It's like Hebrews 10 where the writer to the Hebrews had to say you did well but that passion and zeal has cooled. I mean, you paid a price, you lost your homes, you lost your possessions, now you rebuild. I don't know that I want to go back and lose it all again. I've shared with you, when we were in China so many years ago one of those pastors spent so many years in prison. I said, are you afraid to take this material that we brought for you? What are they going to do to me? I've already been in prison, I can go back. They took away my home, they took away my church, they took away… and he goes through all this. I'm in a good spot. Now I'm getting old, if they take me to prison they'll give me a place to stay and feed me. I had a different view of things, needless to say, than he did.

But this is what Jude is dealing with. We all battle it. Do I have the same passion I had at this stage of my Christian life that I'm willing to do battle for the word of God? I'm not talking about just being a contentious, obnoxious person, but this is truth. Think about it, this is the faith, this is what must be believed or you will go to an eternal hell. It was once-for-all handed down to the saints. You know, there is no new truth to be learned, we continue to grow in our knowledge of the truth, but there is no new truth. I was reading something totally in a different realm but it had to do with some different views. One writer wrote, as I was chasing these rabbit trails, the first person to bring this up was in 1989. He's writing as a positive because he has gotten drawn into it, and I would consider him an evangelical that I would agree with on many things. But I could hardly follow the thing that he was thinking was so wonderful. And I just thought of Jude, this is the once-for-all handed down to the saints truth. That doesn't mean I have come to understand this more clearly, but there is no new truth, this is the truth, it's once for all, once God says it, that settles it. You know our expression, ‘God said it, that settles it, I believe it.’ It is settled, this is the once-for-all handed down to the saints truth. You note what it says, “handed down to the saints.” You know who the saints are, that's us, the holy ones. Same word for holy, saints, sanctified, all come from the same basic word, form of ‘hagios.’ A saint, a holy one, one who has been set apart by God for Himself. God is holy because He is set apart from all sin. So He is the holy God, and now as those who belong to Him we are holy, set apart by God for Himself to manifest the holiness of His character. This has been handed down to the saints. That's why we come together, primarily it's a service for believers. We welcome unbelievers to come and hear how they might experience and enter into a relationship with the living God, not because we are better people and better than you if you haven't trusted Christ. There was a time when we were just like you, then our eyes opened and we placed our faith in Jesus Christ and trusted Him to cleanse us from within and without. We are the saints, this has been entrusted to us, it was handed down. So this is not just truth from Jude but he is building on the truth that they have received.

We didn't take time to look at the other verses, there are numerous of these that refer to this. Established truth, it is held too loosely, people hold the word of God loosely. Well, we don't want to battle over doctrine all the time. We do. If you won't battle for the truth… I've shared with you numerous times, I had one of the pastors come to see me years ago, it was over a battle we were in. He said Gil, I'm not going to follow you in this battle. I said I don't expect you to follow me, but I do expect you will follow the word of God, search it out. Then he said something to me, he said Gil, the problem with you is you'll die for every truth. I said I don't know what to say to that. When I start deciding this is important in the word of God but this is not, just get these pages from page 20 to 378, take the first 16, we'll just take those out. What do you mean? I realize there are going to be different views of certain things, but I can't help it I'm narrow. I want to be as narrow as the word of God is and as broad as the word of God is, you have to contend earnestly for the faith. Everything has a building sequence and I'm reminded of this. I used a man as an example in our study in Romans a week or so ago, I don't know that I mentioned his name. But his views on Israel are physical Israel, and I don't think the land has to be physical. But that's important. Do you know where he is now? He has written a whole large book on the importance of dealing with the environment and fixing the environment. One thing leads to another, leads to another. We have to contend earnestly for the faith and foundational issues of what is the gospel. Are we going to battle for that or aren't we? It's the faith, the word of God.

Why is this necessary? Verse 4, “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God in licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” I read that verse and I scratch my head, and I’m back to I believe this is the word of God, and Jude is writing under the direction of the Spirit. He says he is writing, in verse 1, to those who are the called of God, those who are loved by God, those that he loves, those who have been handed down the word of God and have it in their possession, they are saints, holy ones. And then he says certain persons have crept in among you unnoticed. I could see how that happens. They are those who were beforehand marked out for condemnation, the judgment of God to an eternal hell, ungodly persons. You get down to verse 15 he'll use that word ungodly four times in that one verse. Those that have nothing of the character of God about them, they are God's enemies, ungodly, anti-godly persons. They turn the grace of God into licentiousness, the most vile, corrupt kind of conduct. They deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Now how in the world did they get accepted among believers as okay? Just reading verse 4 I'd say these must be believers that don't know step 2 about salvation. What is this? How can these kinds of people find a place… When we get further down he'll say these people are accepted as fine when it comes to communion, you welcome them to share in the love feast meal together and in the communion service. Wait a minute, these are people who were marked out, written about with the word, written beforehand, this scripture is written about these individuals. They are ungodly, they turn the grace of God… You can't get more opposites here. God's grace and licentiousness, a word that denoted the most vile kind of conduct. And they deny our Master and Lord. They use two words here, Master, ‘despotase,’ you get despot, an absolute sovereign, one with total control. Then he adds to that ‘kyrios,’ Lord. He emphasizes this, He is the One with absolute sovereignty over us, who rules as our Master. We are His slaves. And you haven't noticed they deny Him?

It's a little bit like our country. Some people that are conservative in their politics or something, would say I can't believe what is happening in our country, what is happening in our world. It's like overnight it is starting to disintegrate from within. We recognize that if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? This didn't happen overnight. And some begin to say we put our kids in school, they are taught anti-God everything; they might not put it in this way, but everything taught is contrary to scripture, they come out at the end and then they go to the university and it is all reinforced and there is no recognition of God allowed. And pretty soon that little bit of paper-ship external that looked good just blows away in the wind and we have reality. That happens in the church. Well, you know, this, this, they are good people, I've known them a long time, they'll be all right, we've had them over, and all of a sudden the faith doesn't matter anymore, there are other things that come in.

We're going to have to leave it here, we'll pick up with this and then we move in. What he is doing in laying that foundation is showing how serious this is and this is not new material, he is going to take us back to the Old Testament and give us examples. How could you be so deluded? I've been in the ministry a long time now, I have to say going to battle, I was sort of blindsided, shouldn't have been but it does happen. But you have to deal with it when it comes, I didn't know this would be an issue. I'm just going to explain this, going to sit down and we're going to walk through here and show what the scripture says and they are going to say, I missed that, I didn't see that. Didn't work out that way at all. What happens to the evangelical church? I was reading in this sidetrack I was on about one man, a few years ago he moved to a different evangelical school, but for 25 years he was teaching in a well-known, well-respected evangelical college. People were sending their kids there from evangelical churches thinking they were going to learn. I don't see anything that would indicate to me the man is a believer. He is vehemently against the word of God in so many key areas. How does this man get accepted in an evangelical…? I know who the president is, I don't know him personally but I know of him and about him and familiar with his ministry. How these kinds of professors get accepted, that they can stand there and say the word of God is not right here, that has a total different meaning. And we send our kids? People that I have been personally connected to have attended that college and one day it may have stood for something, nowadays just wherever you go. This happens to churches. No, we still have our same doctrinal statement. Happened in the school I went to, I have lived to see the end of it and it has been many years gone. How did it happen? Well, it comes in and you overlook this and it is all right and we don't want to fight over this. I listened to the president of one school, I've shared it, someone asked him about some of the professors, he wasn't the president anymore, he is retired. What would you do if you were president? He said I would fire them. They were never fired, they are still there until today. So that corruption.

So people think that church is narrow, they think they are the only ones right. I think the Bible is all that is right. Recent battles we had, I asked some of the men to sit down and talk to me about what they said was a doctrinal disagreement. I said I won't argue with you, just explain to me what you say the doctrine that you disagree is because I'm not able to understand. I can't even get a response, don't even return my call or my e-mail. What is it? Do we contend for the truth? We fight for the faith. We better, the war is on, the devil has never gone away, that's why you must be continually, earnestly contending for the faith. When we lose our heart for the battle, we've lost the battle. Satan doesn't quit coming with a charge. I'm getting tired, I'm going to lay down my weapon. Do you think the devil says don't attack them anymore, they are tired? That's the way the devil deals with… He won’t be happy until he destroys, he is the destroyer. Those lulls, and you have been through it, you've been through the battle. One of you shared with me, it's hard sometimes to enjoy the peaceful times because you are expecting battle at any time. And we have to live that way, that's what Jude is talking about. We have something so precious, that's why Paul told Timothy it is a treasure you must guard. Paul is on his way out, Timothy, you have to understand, you have to step up and do battle, you have been entrusted with a treasure, you cannot allow it to be corrupted, changed or altered.

Praise God that's what the church is, the pillar and support of the truth. God has established us to be a pillar and support of the truth, to be constantly contending earnestly, zealously for the faith which was once for all handed down to us, the saints. What a blessing.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the riches of Your word. And Lord, each of us, we have multiple copies of the Bible, we have been blessed to study it in various contexts with other believers, in our homes, in church, in our classes. Some of us have spent many years in the Word and it is easy to become lax, to take for granted the blessing and privilege that has been given to us, to have in our own possession a copy of Your words. We want to count it as something precious that is to be taken seriously. Thank you for the way You have blessed us as a church, thank you for the privilege we have to study this truth and Lord, to be contending earnestly for the truth of Your word. We want to do it in love and a manner that is honoring to You, Lord, in a way that is firm and unyielding. So thank you for this time in the Word, thank you for the day before us. Continue to bless wherever we are, may we represent You faithfully. We pray in Christ's name, amen.