Earnestly Contend

Today, I don't know if you've done the math, but today marks the 1,991st Pentecost of the Church of God. Since Pentecost in 31 AD, from its humble and yet miraculous beginnings, the ecclesia of God, those whom He has called out of this world into covenant with Him, that group has ebbed, it's flowed, it's grown, it's declined, but throughout history it has fulfilled the promise that Jesus Christ made in Matthew 16, that the gates of hell would never prevail against His church, against that body of which Christ is head. You know, we look at Acts 2. If you want to begin turning over there, you can. We've been there once already today, but following Peter's call-to-action message and with the outpouring of God's Spirit, the devout Jews that were in attendance at that time recognized Christ as Messiah. They were cut to the heart. They were baptized. They received the promise. Again, Acts 2, Book of Acts, as you're turning over there, kind of outlines the happenings, so to speak, of the early church, and it was intended to chronicle for Theophilus the events that had taken place. Acts, to some degree, serves as Luke part 2. You know, if we kind of look at the way that He intended to write things of Christ and the time of His ministry, as well as into the time of Acts and the events leading up to and including the day of Pentecost. And then, of course, all that went on in the early church with Peter and Paul and the other apostles' adventures between the 30s and the 60s AD, as the gospel ultimately went out, as we heard this morning, to the Gentiles.

Acts 2, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 40, because I want to illustrate the enthusiasm and the early growth of the church. Again, following this first day of Pentecost of the modern era, we might say the beginning of the church here in the modern era, on 31 AD, on the day of Pentecost. Acts 2, we'll pick it up in verse 40. Peter, again, as he's concluding his very powerful sermon, he says, and with many other words he testified and he exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation. Verse 41, Then those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. They continued steadfastly, verse 42, in the apostles' doctrine and in fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers, says, Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together and had all things in common. They sold their possessions and their goods, and they divided them among all, as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, says they ate their food with gladness and with simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all of the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. You know, we see coming out of Acts 2 a body of believers that comes out of this day of Pentecost with a zeal and an enthusiasm that spreads like a fire, as God is adding to the membership of the ecclesia daily, as he is bringing people to him each and every day. It says, They continued steadfastly in the doctrine and in fellowship, in the breaking of bread. They shared their meals together. They shared their prayers. You know, they were together in all of these things, having things, all the things in common and caring for one another as there was need. Again, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart. I love that line, that they dined together with gladness and with simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all of the people. Now, through the 30-odd years that are encompassed by the book of Acts, the church grew outward from Jerusalem.

Congregations were added throughout Judea. They were added throughout Asia Minor, even into the European continent. You know, there were travels that Paul made clear into the European continent at that time. And as the gospel spread, the church grew and it developed in an ever-changing society.

It grew and developed in a society that was changing constantly. There were a few things that were consistent and in common, but that society was changing rapidly in those years.

It experienced good times and it experienced incredibly challenging times.

Throughout its early years, Emperor Tiberius actually famously ordered Roman officials not to get involved and to interfere with Christianity at that time following Christ's death, despite the Roman Senate declaring Christianity an illegal superstition, which in Roman law was a crime. Tiberius ordered them to be hands-off with the Christians at that time. And according to historians, that edict of Tiberius was upheld through the reigns of Caligula and Claudius before Nero in the 60s finally separated Christianity from Judaism into two separate things and began an incredible persecution, whole-scale persecution, of believers in the 60s AD.

And it was during the 60s AD that many of these things changed for the believers, for the Christians throughout the Roman Empire. Now, it's believed that during this time, during the 60s AD, that both Peter and Paul were martyred. As Mr. Sexton mentioned this morning, the books of 1st and 2nd Peter read very differently. In the book of 1st Peter, Peter is encouraging the brethren to be aware of the trials that were to come and the sufferings that were to come.

You know, by the time you reach 2nd Peter, you realize Peter, I think, came to the conclusion he wasn't getting out alive. You know, he realized that what he was told was going to take place. But when you read the words in 1st Peter 4 of the trials that would test their faith and of the things that they would experience and the sufferings and the challenges, he is most certainly referencing the challenges that they would face and were facing at the hands of Nero.

Christianity, we know, outlived Nero. It lived through the year of four emperors with Vespasian, you know, coming to the throne. It survived the destruction of the temple and the chaos of the Jewish-Roman war. It survived the ascension of Titus to the throne and eventually Domitian, which takes us through as far as we can tell, the 30-year period that spans Peter and Paul's writings until the final books of the Bible are written of John in the mid-to-late 80s to 90s AD.

But it was during that time frame when John was writing his works, and during that, you know, 30-year period between the 60s and 90s AD, that there was another challenge in addition to persecution that began to face God's people. Peter and Paul both wrote about it. They both warned about it. And in the intervening years, it grew to the point that John had no choice but to address it in his epistles.

Gnosticism, a collection of heretical ideas and concepts that came kind of from the amalgamation of Greek thought philosophy, Hellenistic mystery, religions, and Jewish mysticism kind of all came together into this school of thought that believed that personal spiritual knowledge trumped doctrine and religious authority. That personal knowledge trumped doctrine and authority of religious institutions, and that that knowledge was to move people past a place of sin and repentance, to a place of enlightenment which came about as a result of that secret knowledge that they possessed. Throughout the intervening years, just as Paul warned the elders of Ephesus in Acts 20, wolves arose, they brought heresy into the church, and people left the body chasing after false doctrine. Men like Hymenaeus, Alexander, Philetis, those who taught the resurrection had already passed that we see written. We see the Nicolaitans as we see the message being given to the churches in Revelation. We see those who taught the doctrine of Balaam. The pages of our Bible are full of false ideas, examples of false ideas that were brought into the body of believers, and ultimately, sadly, those that followed those false ideas right out the door.

Turn with me please to the book of Jude. Turn with me please to the book of Jude.

Jude is one of the writers that wrote during this time period, during these intervening years, between the mid-60s and the 90s AD. Jude's tucked in there behind John's epistles in the book of Revelation. But he wrote during this time frame between the mid-60s and the 90s AD. And there's some debate as to whether it was earlier on that side or later on that side. Honestly, that's kind of immaterial. It was in that window between the 60s and 90s AD. And what we do know is that Jude identifies himself as the brother of James, and it is likely that he is the Judas that is mentioned as the brother of Christ in Matthew 13 and Mark 6. Jude 1 says, Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who were called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Jude very specifically identifies the audience of individuals that he was writing to as those who were called, those who were sanctified, those who were preserved in Christ. The word that's used here in Greek for the word call is the word kletos. You might have heard that in the last half of the Greek word for the Holy Spirit, parakletos, right? This is kletos. It comes from the root kaleo, which means to call upon, to invite, or, depending on the authority of the individual doing the calling, to summon. It can mean to be summoned. Sanctified here is the Greek word agiazo, which is the act of making something holy, setting something apart for a specific purpose, and it comes from the root agios, which is a common term throughout the New Testament to describe the state of the believer. William Barkley, in his daily Bible study series, states the following about the concept of the Greek word agios. You know, obviously we want to be careful with commentaries, but Barkley has a an interesting way with Greek, and he has a way that is helpful to understand what the meaning of these words are. He says, the New Testament word for saint, the word that we see translated as saint in Scripture, is agios, which is also commonly translated holy. Its basic meaning is different, as kind of we might consider the concept of being set apart, right? Different. The temple was agios because it was different from other buildings. The Sabbath was agios because it was different than other days. The Jewish nation was agios because it was different from other people, and the Christian was called to be agios because he was called to be different from other men.

There was always a distinct cleavage between the Christian and the world.

In the fourth gospel, Jesus says, if you were of the world, then the world would love its own, but because you were not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore, Christ told his disciples, the world hates you. John 15 verse 19, I have given them thy word, said Jesus, in his prayer to God, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. And that's John 17 verse 14. What Barkley goes on to say is that all of this involved a new ethical demand. It demanded a new standard of moral purity, a new kindness, a new service, a new forgiveness, and it was difficult. It was difficult.

Barkley goes on and says, and once the first thrill and enthusiasm were gone, it became harder and harder to stand out against the world and to refuse to conform to the generally accepted standards and practices of the age.

That's William Barkley, Letters of John and Jude, in page four, if you'd like to look that up.

This epistle was written, you know, roughly 30 to 50 years after the events of the Day of Pentecost, to those whom God had called to be different, called to be out of the world, called to a new way of life, a different way of life. Ultimately, he had called them, he had set them apart, and through Christ, he had preserved them. That was the audience of Jude's letter. Jude was writing to the firstfruits. Jude was writing to us and to the church throughout time. Those who had received that promise, it was provided during Peter's message in Acts 2 to their children and ultimately down to us, those who were afar off, as it says in Acts 2. Jude goes on in Jude 3, he says, Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, he says, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly, for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. Verse 4, For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men who turned the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. So Jude explains he had intended fully to write them in his epistle concerning their common salvation. Now, similar to what we see in a number of the other epistles, you know, talking about the characteristics of God, talking about his calling, talking about, you know, the commonality of living a Christian life. But instead, he said, as a result of the conditions of the age, he found it necessary to write to exhort them to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. Why? Why did he need to do that? Because at that time, at the time in which this letter was written, in the immediate context of the letter, we can see that certain people had crept in unnoticed, bringing in false doctrine and heresy. So there was an immediate context there, specifically to those things. You know, the rest of Jude's letter mirrors 2 Peter and his exhortation, you know, as we kind of look at 2 Peter and the things that 2 Peter wrote regarding what was to come. But ultimately, the larger context of this letter is to the church on the whole, to those throughout time, throughout history, to ensure that they earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered. Let's go on in verse 5. We're just going to... Jude's a short book. We're going to quickly go through it here, just to kind of see the different character that he has written about here, that he has discussed, the sorts of things that took place. He says, I want to remind you, verse 5, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterwards, destroyed those who did not believe. The angels who did not keep their proper domain but left their own abode, he is reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness for the judgment of the great day. As Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise, also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries.

Yet, Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said the Lord rebuke you.

But these, verse 10, these individuals he's referencing here, they speak evil of whatever they do not know, and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. He says, Woe to them, for they've gone in the way of Cain, they've run greedily in the error of Balaam for prophet, and perished in the rebellion of Korah, all again, specific examples in Scripture that we can look at to understand. These are spots, verse 12, in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves.

They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds, laid autumn trees without fruit twice dead, pulled up by the roots, raging waves of the sea foaming up their own shame, wandering stars, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men, also saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." Verse 16, these are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts. They mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.

But you, beloved, speaking to the church, to the ecclesia, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. How they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons who cause divisions, not having the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourself up on your most holy faith, on that faith once delivered to the saints, praying in the Holy Spirit. He says, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. On some have compassion, making a distinction, but on others, saved with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.

Now the specific heresies that are expounded on in this particular letter give us a commentary, to a certain degree, on the attitude and the character of those who are bringing these things into the church at that time. Bringing in these heresies, bringing in these divisions, bringing these things in during this period of time, between the time of Peter and Paul and the writings of John in the latter first century. And again, in this larger context, this message is to the ecclesia as a whole, it's to the church as a whole, to the firstfruits, to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered. That's the title of the sermon message today, Earnestly Content.

And to some degree, I recognize this is a fairly unconventional Pentecost message.

You know, as I'm putting it together, and as I was going through the process, I realized that this is an unconventional Pentecost message. But I felt it was something that was important, I felt it was something that, as Mr. Sexton mentioned this morning, you know, the sense of urgency that we need to be having. You know, we viewed this life as a marathon for a very, very long time, and the sense of urgency that we need to have in the protecting of the things which God has provided us is critical. It is absolutely critical. And so we need to ensure that we are doing these things. You know, we've had great messages today on the various aspects of the Day of Pentecost. What I would like to explore today is the urgency and the importance of protecting the faith. A faith that once again extends back as far as creation, but was delivered so powerfully in this modern area, one thousand nine... or era, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-one years ago on this Day of Pentecost. So let's go over to Deuteronomy 7 to begin here today. Deuteronomy 7, as you turn over there, you know, we see that when we examine the record of Scripture and we go back and we look at what God instructed His people, chosen people throughout time, whether it was ancient Israel or whether it was the church, what He instructed them specifically to do, we see instructions that God provided to the people to ensure that the people remained separate from the world around them, from the nations that surrounded them. We see numerous locations that give us holiness principles in Scripture. We see numerous places that, you know, God gave instructions that serve to keep Israel separate from the people around them, to make them distinct, to make them different.

And ultimately in Deuteronomy 7 we see the reasons why God gave those instructions to Israel. In fact, in very strong words, God makes His instructions very clear as to exactly why He is saying these things. Deuteronomy 7, we'll pick it up in verse 1. I don't know, my Bible has a heading that says A, chosen people. I'm not sure if yours does too. But it says, when the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess and has cast out many nations before you. He's cast out the Hittites, the Gergashites, I'm just going to say all the other Ites. You know, you take a look at all the rest of them there. There's a whole bunch of different nations. But seven nations, he says, that are greater and that are mightier than you. He says these nations are greater and mightier than you. God is bringing you into this nation that you will possess these places. Verse 2, when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them. And, and these are hard to read sometimes, but you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them. Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. For they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.

You know, as we see God very clearly explain to the people of Israel why these instructions take place. Verse 5, he says, but thus you shall deal with them. You shall destroy their altars, break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images and burn their carved images with fire. God gave Israel specific instruction to utterly destroy the seven nations of the land in which they were to come into. He was very clear, very clear, because if Israel did not, then Israel would make covenant with those people. He would make covenant with the people of that land. They would intermarry with them. Their children would be given to their sons and to their daughters and vice versa, and in the process of all of these things, those nations around them would turn them away from God. And Israel would become just like everybody else around them.

God desired his people to be separate. He desired them to be distinct, to be different, to be holy. Verse 6 goes on. He says, for you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The word there is kodesh. The word there is kodesh. It means sacred. It means holy. It means removed from the common use, being set apart for a distinct purpose. He says, you're a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples, but because the Lord loves you and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Therefore, he says, no, the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments. He repays those who hate him to their face to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates him. He will repay him to his face. Therefore, verse 11, you shall keep the commandments, the statutes, the judgments which I command you today to observe them." You know, God didn't set them apart due to any specific characteristic of the Israelite people. You know, they were the least in this scenario. You know, they weren't anything special. It had nothing to do with them. It had everything to do with God and with his faithfulness, ultimately, and the promise that he made Abraham. Now, as we see the story of Israel unfold, unfortunately, we see exactly what God said would happen happen. They did not follow his instructions. Their daughters and sons intermarried with the nations around them. They began to worship the gods of the nations around them, and pretty soon, Israel looked just like everybody else, worshiping the same gods, worshiping the same way, pagan practices, all of those same things. They looked just like the world they were living in. The heart of the people of Israel was turned away from their God.

People of Israel got too close. They got too comfortable. The world, the society, the cultures, the customs of the people around them caused them to compromise their faith. How bad? In the 18th year of King Josiah, in the 7th century BC, they were renovating a portion of the temple and rediscovered the law of God. They didn't know where it was up to that point. They hadn't been following it. They hadn't been doing it. Josiah opened the scroll. They publicly read it, and Josiah rent his clothes because he realized they had not been living the way that God had intended them to live as a nation. They'd compromised. They'd become just like everybody else.

Fast forward to the New Testament. We see God working with a specific group of people as well.

Those who've circumcised the heart, those who have entered into covenant with him, who have received his spirit. If you want to turn over to 2 Peter, uh, sorry, 1 Peter, and turn over to 1 Peter, we'll see the words of the Apostle Peter again as he writes to the pilgrims of the Diaspora in the regions of Asia Minor. You know, these individuals that would have been receiving this letter would have been Jewish converts, as well as Gentile converts to Christianity that was present in that area of the world during the 60s AD when this letter was written. 1 Peter 2, in fact, the address that President Shaby just gave to the church mentioned this particular passage. He speaks of the people as living stones. He speaks of them as living stones. Individual members being built up into a spiritual temple. Individual stones being built into a spiritual temple with each row of those stones being put off of and aligned off of that cornerstone that set the elevation, it set the angle, and every other stone was set based on. As I smack things up here, I get a little excited. I start moving my hands. If I fling Mr. Sexton's phone off of here, Mr. Davis, I apologize. You know, send Mr. Davis into the front row accidentally here. But all of these individuals were being built into this spiritual temple, this spiritual building that was present that Peter was referencing here, all of them placed in accordance with the standard of Jesus Christ as that chief cornerstone. He goes on in verse 9 again of 1 Peter 2. He says, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. It says, his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness, who called you out of it into his marvelous light, who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. And Mr. Sexton explained that passage this morning.

These were individuals that were chosen. They had been selected. They had been called from darkness into light, into the way of God. They had been called out of the darkness of their former lives.

As it talks about in 1 Corinthians 9, as such, it says, were some of you to the Corinthians, right? They were called out of that, just as God intended his chosen people to be separate.

God's expectation of his church, his spiritual Israel, is that they be holy, that they be separate, that they be distinct from the world as well. Apostle Paul wrote about this in Romans 12, Romans 12 verses 1 to 2. We won't turn there, but if you'd like to jot it in your notes, you can.

Paul encourages the readers of his epistle to maintain that distinction by not allowing the world, as he puts it in there, to conform them into its mold, into its shape. In fact, some translations of that read, don't let the world squeeze you into its mold or allow you to conform to the pattern, it says, of the world in some translations, but instead to be transformed by the renewing of our minds via the Spirit of God that dwells within us.

You know, you've all likely seen injection molding done before. Some of you may, you know, you different, either injection molding or like lost wax type molding and things, where a specific mold is made, kind of the inverse of a pattern that you want to make, and then you pour, you know, a hot liquid of some kind into it, and it cools, and ultimately, you know, at the end you get a replica of whatever the mold was an inverse of. That's along the lines of the context that Paul is referencing here.

Paul is saying, when you come out of that mold, you shouldn't look like the world around you.

You shouldn't have aspects of that present. That's the context. That's the reference that Paul is making. Don't allow the world to mold you. Don't allow it to impact who you are, instead be transformed by the Spirit of God that is dwelling in us as of the day of Pentecost in 31 A.D.

John writes in his first epistle in 1 John 2 verse 15 to 17, "...do not love the world or the things that are in the world. For all that is in the world, he says, the lust of the flesh of the eyes, the pride of life, he says, it is not of the Father, but it's of the world." And John's emphatic point is that the things of this world, the things in the world around us, in the nations, quote-unquote, around us, are passing away.

They are passing away. But he who does the will of God, John says, will abide forever. Paul says, don't let the world squeeze you into its mold. John says, don't love the world or what's in it, for it's passing away. James says, don't have friendship with the world. Why did God inspire all three of these men at this time in the church's history to write these words?

Why did he inspire these things? Because beginning in earnest in the 60s A.D. and very much so by the 90s A.D., the world began to enter the church. The world began to enter the church. Whether it was through false teachings that began outside based on Hellenistic thought and Gnosticism, whether it was false religion that was brought in with people that had come in, whether it was whatever, bringing customs and teachings and traditions from their own cultures that were hard to shake, or whether it was the accepted societal standards that squeezed the church at that time. We might say the spirit of the age, we might say. The world entered the church. You know, the church was always meant to go into the world. The church was always meant to go into the world. It was never intended to be separate like, you know, the Amish have viewed the separatist kind of way of being separated from things. I think sometimes it'd be a much less stressful life, you know, in that way. But the church was always designed to go into the world. It was always designed to interact with the world.

It was always intended to be in the world in that sense, to go and to preach the gospel to it, to make disciples of those whom God was calling out of it. But they were never intended to be of the world. They were never intended to be of the world. Turn with me to John 15. John 15. In fact, we read these just briefly earlier when William Barkley had mentioned these two chapters, but John 15, we see the final words of Christ to his disciples.

John 15, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 18. You know, these last few passages here that Christ is speaking with his disciples are incredibly encouraging, as he knew what was coming, you know, what was ultimately going to come and going to be a situation that they were going to be dealing with after he was gone. But he was incredibly encouraging in these things. John 15, verse 18, says, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. You know, Christ kind of says, look, you're in good company. You know, it doesn't like me either, you know, and because you're with me, well, they're not gonna like you either, he says.

But he says, if the world hates you, you know it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own.

Yet because you're not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore, he says, the world hates you. It detests, it despises, is what that Greek term means. Let's go over to verse chapter 17 and verse 14, just a few pages over. He reiterates this same concept.

John 17, verse 14, he says, I have given them your word, speaking to the Father here, as he's praying, I've given them the word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world just, he says, as I am not of the world.

Notice what he says in verse 15. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, separated from it entirely in that sense that there's no interaction with. He says, I don't pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one.

They are not of the world just as I am not of the world. Now, Christ tells his disciples because of this, that they would detest him, that they were to be called out of the world, and as a result of that, they would be despised by that same world that they had been called out of. The disciples were to be in the world, but they were to not be of the world. You know, many of you are aware that I love fishing. I very much enjoy fishing. You know, a few of you that also enjoy fishing are thinking, uh-oh, he brought up fishing. I do like fishing. One of my favorite fisheries is buoy tan over on the Astoria coast during the summertime, and one of the reasons I like that is that I can actually go out there and get a tan instead of getting soaked while catching salmon, which is a fantastic second thing.

When the fish are in, it's fantastic salmon fishing when they're in, but for those of you that are familiar with the area, the Astoria area, perhaps the Columbia River there, you know, that jaws of the Columbia River is one of the most dangerous bar crossings in the world. Water can get very sketchy, very fast out in that area. Because it's so close to the ocean, it's very strongly affected by the tidal exchange, and right about one o'clock, two o'clock, every afternoon, just on the dot, the wind picks up, and if the wind and the tides hit at the perfect timing, it gets ugly and it gets ugly fast, and so you see a lot of boats heading in about one o'clock, two o'clock, because, you know, it got real ugly and it got real nasty out.

I was fishing with a friend a couple years ago. We'd almost gotten our limit, and so we kind of had that salmon fever. Like, just one or two more. We can do this. We can get one or two more. Conditions started getting a little gross. Fish were biting on that tide exchange. The wind picked up real bad. Waves got nasty. You know, six, eight, ten foot swells. I mean, it was gross, and it got gross quick, and we're in this little 24-foot open top boat, you know, not real big, but we thought, you know what?

We're good. We'll just keep fishing for a little bit. Everything's fine. You know, it'll be good. Shortly after we made that decision, we took a huge wave over the back of the boat, and I mean, there was hundreds of gallons of water in this boat at that point, and I look at the captain.

His eyes got about as big as dinner plates, and it was then we took the second wave over the back of the boat, and we're now doing this. So he's reeling in lines. I'm bailing with a bucket. You know, we're trying to get all this water out of here, and he's gotten all the lines to get angled so that we can maybe, you know, not sink and die.

That would have been ideal. We did decide no fish was really worth our lives. It was time to head in. So we made it in, everything was fine. We got angled into the waves and made it in, but you know, this concept was made very real to me that day that a ship does not sink from the water that is outside the boat. It sinks from the water that is inside the boat.

That's what brings the boat down. While we're out and there's no water in the boat, we're fine. We're good. We're not even really kind of in contact with the water at that point, but as soon as it's in the boat, we're sinking. We're sinking. As soon as it gets to that point, while we're on top, while we're bobbing on top of the water, we're not worrying at all. But as soon as that first wave and that second wave came in, you know, both of us got real concerned real quick. And thankfully we made it in, everything was fine. Bilge pump worked over time, got us back.

But the reality is that water that got in that boat was dangerous to us at that point, where it was not dangerous necessarily before. You know, being of the world can mean a lot of different things. You know, it can mean what we see in 1 John 2.15. It can mean that a person yields themselves to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. You know, it can mean that a person is perhaps more concerned with the world and its ways.

You know, we heard about that in the, you know, special music today. More concerned with worldly wealth as opposed to maybe putting the treasure up in heaven as the song advocated for. But another way that we don't necessarily consider, and I'd like us to explore this a little bit today, is how our individual or even collective worldview impacts our faith. Ultimately impacts this faith that we've been called to. Now, worldview and kind of this concept of worldview, it's a collection of attitudes and values and beliefs and expectations about the world that ultimately shape and inform every thought and action that we make.

And I'll try to make this make some sense if I can. These worldview things, they can be conscious, they can be unconscious. So they can be things that we, unknowingly recognize and things that we don't recognize. But they do still impact the way that we look at things. But they affect so many different aspects of our lives because, you know, like a pair of glasses, you put the lenses on and you see now differently based on the lenses that you're wearing.

You know, for example, a person born in the United States is going to view the world very differently than a person who is born in Europe. Two very different worldviews. America, freedom, individual liberty, is very important to us. That colors how we think about the world. It colors how we look at the world.

Europe, they're very big on collective responsibility. That's their big thing. You know, the good of the whole outweighs the needs of the few, right, is the idea. So we're going to look at two different concepts in two very different ways as Americans and as Europeans. You know, you take a look at someone in the United States. I've never lived anywhere outside of the Northwest. I have always, I was born and I was raised in the Northwest.

You put me in the deep South, I'm not going to know what's going on. I'm just not. And it's not a bad thing. I'm just saying it's going to take me a learning curve to figure out because of my worldview and how I was born and raised in the place in which I lived that I would ultimately see things. A person who has attended a four-year university will have a different worldview than someone who has not, simply based on four years of institutionalization in the university system.

A man is going to see the world very differently than a woman, based on different experiences, based on different things growing up. And again, it may be conscious, it may be unconscious, but these different lenses that we see the world with, so to speak, they color how we see things.

And if we are not careful, if we are not careful, they can color how we see the world, the Word of God. They can color how we see the Word of God. If our culture, if our society, if the philosophy, the politics, humanism, New Age religions, any other system of worldly thinking impacts or colors how each of us view the Word of God, brethren, we have a problem. We have a problem. Because we've allowed the world in. At that point, we've allowed the world in.

Which brings us back to Jude. Let's go back to Jude 3. Jude 3. Because Jude, in addition to describing the problem, Jude also provides the solution. That's the beauty of Jude in the writing that he provided. In addition to explaining the issue that he was experiencing at that time, he also provides the solution. Jude 3, and once again, we'll see this particular setup. While you're doing that, just a thought. You know, Mr.

Sexton actually mentioned this morning. This is an example, and it's a great example of worldview and impact. Remember Peter? Peter goes to Galatia, right? Paul has to get in his face because he pulled back away from those individuals that were Gentiles at that time, and there was some issues there, right?

Paul had to kind of get in his face about it and correct him on it. Why did Peter withdraw? What was his reasons? One, there was some peer pressure from the Jews that were present there because he was there, but did Peter allow his Jewish worldview at that time to get in the way of what the Word of God said?

The same Peter, by the way, that had the vision, the same Peter that understood fully because you see him enunciate it at the Acts 15 Conference. That's exactly what happened. Peter allowed that Jewish worldview at that time to get in the way.

It colored his understanding of Scripture at that time. Jude 3, what does Jude say? Jude says, Beloved, 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 for all delivered to the saints. Jude saw the impact that that outside thinking and that heresy that was being brought into the church at that time was having in the time that he had written.

You know, the attitudes, the character, the heresy that impacted the church, it ultimately came from within, but the ideas came from without. They came in with the individuals from outside of the church and it impacted the inside of the church. What he said was he desired to write them for concerning that common salvation, but instead he felt necessary to exhort them to contend earnestly for the faith that was once delivered. That word, contend earnestly, which is the title of the message today, is the Greek word epigonesthai.

Epigonesthai, and it's a compound verb made up of the word epi, which means to be focused on, and a gon, which is a contest or competition, and the zathai is the verb portion of it. But basically, the word itself means to struggle, to contend, or to fight with something with a specific focus to win.

With a specific focus to win. Think about a boxer, think about a wrestler, think about somebody who is going into a competition with a focus on winning the struggle that they are entering into at that time. The context is athletic in its origin, but it means that that skill, that commitment, that singular focus, needs to be utilized to oppose whatever needs in this state to be opposed. What are we contending for? Jude says we're contending for the faith once delivered.

We're contending for the faith once delivered, and the word for delivered in Greek is paradidomai, and it means a whole lot more than just handing something to somebody. You know, if I deliver a letter, for example, here's your letter. Yes, that's a delivery, correct. But paradidomai means that I am giving something to someone, and I am entrusting it to their care.

I'm entrusting it to their care. I am giving it to that individual, but I am handing it over, knowing full well that it's going to be cared for, it's going to be managed, and it's going to be protected. I am entrusting it with this person that I've given it to. The Church of God today has been entrusted with the precious truth of God. You know, these things have been committed into our hands in the modern era, an extension of 1,991 years of this, you guys, since 31 A.D. in the day of Pentecost. You know, it has been handed into the hands of faithful servants who, with each generation, have delivered it to the next, have given it to the hands of the next generation, worked together to uphold the integrity of these things, the integrity of that faith.

And to ensure that the gates of hell do not prevail against the Church that Jesus built.

As has been mentioned numerous times today, we live in very challenging times. We live in challenging times. We live in times in which worldviews collide. We live in times in which worldviews are just smashing into each other, all over the news, all over the talk shows, all over everything. The truth of God we see, it's battered at every turn. It's challenged, it's mocked. It's misinterpreted. It's reinterpreted. That's a nice way of saying misinterpreted. It's reasoned around and sometimes directly challenged. Sometimes directly challenged.

How will we respond? How will we respond? Will we uphold that truth with veracity?

Or do we compromise? Will we consciously or unconsciously join ourselves to the people around us? Will we uphold the standard of Scripture when it comes to our thoughts and our words and our actions? Will we build up and uphold a biblical worldview such that when other worldviews impact it, we can recognize them for what they are? We can recognize the falsity and not allow the two things to become connected, to become amalgamated in some way? Will we allow God, His Word, His ways, the calling He's given us? Will we allow that to remain distinct and separate from the world itself, not lowering the bar and comparing ourselves with the world, remaining a tick or two or three maybe above the world around us? The problem with that is, as the world declines, so do we. The standard's always been the standard. It's always been God. It's always been Christ. It's always been what's been provided for us. It's a tough standard, but we can't lower the bar. We can't, you know, allow ourselves to be, uh, acknowledge and accept our, our, our, uh, I guess, allowing ourselves to become more like the world in that way. Once again, brethren, ships don't sink from the water outside. They sink from the water that gets inside. We can't afford to compromise. We can't afford, when it comes to the truth of God, to allow culture or society, philosophy, politics, or other systems of thought to impact the sanctity of Scripture.

Again, 1,991 years ago, in Jerusalem today, this modern era began. God poured His Holy Spirit out on those gathered at that time, these miraculous signs and wonders. From that point, as it grew and it developed, the people were zealous. They were together in all things. They were connected in doctrine and in fellowship, and they broke bread together with regularity, and the Gospel went out to the world, and the Church grew rapidly in those intervening years. Sadly, by the end of the first century, much had changed. In fact, the ecclesia of God at that point faded into the background, in the face of incredible persecution and doctrinal heresy, and a nearly unrecognizable Church arose.

And what we recognize and what much of the rest of the world around us today recognizes as Christianity was what rose in its place. The spirit of the age, the worldview of that time, found its way in. The world entered the Church, and we live in a time in which many different viewpoints are vying for control. You know, kind of trying to see which viewpoints are going to become the predominant viewpoint of the world, become that spirit of this age. And as Mr. Kester brought out in the sermonette this morning, it is a spirit of deception. It is a spirit of deception.

And it's no different than the time of Peter and Paul, Jude and John. The players are different. Playbook's the same. It's the same playbook, different players, but the same playbook.

We're admonished by Jude to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered, to struggle, to contend, to fight with a focus to win for that which has been entrusted to each and every one of us for protection. The precious, precious truth of God. Brethren, we need to be on guard to ensure that we protect the Word and the standard of God from all these different philosophies that we see out there in this modern era, because right now, right now is our watch. It is our watch right now.

Brethren, let us earnestly contend for the faith once delivered.