John K. Jenkins Sr - Fight for The Faith

Now I'm going to do something that I don't normally do. Today, what I want to do is tell you that I'm going to preach from this whole chapter-the whole chapter of Jude's 25 verses . It's going to take me a couple of hours. Yeah, y'all go lying in church. Y'all lying. Y'all ain't-y'all are not hoping I go a couple of hours, but what I want to do at the outset is give you the structure for how this chapter is laid out. It is structured in five sections, and I'm going to give you what those five sections are because they comprise the five points I want to make. There will be some sub-points to each one of these points, but let me give you the layout of the chapter first.

We're going to deal with the challenge-somebody say "the challenge"! The challenge is going to be verses 3-4. Then we're going to deal with the consequences-somebody say "the consequences"! And that's verses 5 through 7 . After the challenge and after the consequences, section three deals with the characteristics-somebody say "the characteristics"! And that's verses 8-9. The characteristics! After the characteristics, verses 20-22 deal with the corrective course-say "the corrective course"! And finally , the fifth and final section is the conclusion-that's verses 24 and 25.

I wondered if anybody noticed that all of these sections begin with the letter "C." Come on, show a brother some love. Thank you, Pastor, for working those C's. Now, this book - this epistle by Jude, a brother of James and servant of Jesus-is written to the church , and I need to tell you at the very outset that he says in verse one that he's writing to the people who are called and who are sanctified by God. Called and sanctified! Now, I'm telling you that because what I'm going to talk about may cause some of y'all to be upset , angry, or mad. A lot of you may not agree , but it's okay. If you are called and sanctified, this is who this is written to: the people who identify themselves as being called by God and sanctified.

What does the word "sanctified" mean? When I was growing up, "sanctified" was like a denomination . It was like, "Those are the sanctified people up the street." But the reality is sanctification is what we are called to. It's what Jesus does for us; it's what He has called us to be-to be sanctified. And sanctified means that He has cleaned up your life to be used by Him. It means that God has cleaned up your life. By looking at this crowd , I'm just saying that , well, God cleans us up. It's like your dishes; your dishes get dirty, and then you clean them. Once the dishes are clean , you set them up on the shelf to be used. They 're clean. That 's what sanctification means: God has cleaned you up so He can use you.

When God wants to use somebody, He doesn 't want to use dirty dishes . It's going to be a long message right here, I can tell. So he says, "I'm writing to those who've been called out and those who have been sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ. Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you." And then he begins to have this discussion dealing with the fact that there are people who have infiltrated the church and are teaching people in the church that it doesn't matter how you live your life . Whether you know it or not, there are churches , and pastors , and preachers, and teachers who are telling people that it doesn't really matter how you live your life, and that's where verses 3 and 4 come in with the challenge.

So let me talk about this challenge mentioned right here in verses 3 and 4. "Beloved," verse 3, "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 delivered to the saints." He said, "I wanted to talk to you all about the greatness of salvation and the salvation that God has given to us , but it's necessary for me to exhort you to contend for the faith , to fight for the faith." Whether y'all know it or not , we are in a battle, and I've been saying this week after week and month after month that we are engaged in a battle.

It is a battle about the veracity of Scriptures. Go ahead with that big word, Pastor! Veracity means truthfulness. Can this Bible be depended upon to give us truth? Can we base our life on what this teaches? It's a battle-it's a war-and we have to contend for the faith because there are people who want to undermine the integrity of the Scriptures. Jude says , "I want to challenge you to earnestly contend for the faith," and I'm trying to raise up a generation of people in this church who are not just church attenders . I'm sick of people who just go to church. I'm trying to get people who are going to stand up for what's right, even if it means they lose friends, even if it means they get talked about , rejected , and misunderstood. That's what Jude is saying. He says, "It 's necessary for me to write to you and exhort you to contend earnestly for the faith, to fight for the faith because, verse 4, why? Because here's the challenge: certain men have crept in unnoticed ."