well good morning Southern Seminary and Boyce College I bring you greetings from Fort Lauderdale Florida and cor Rich Presbyterian Church uh Dr and Mrs mher such an honor to be here thank you for your warm invitation and your gracious Hospitality it is quite remarkable and I hope you all understand students and faculty and staff what you have here at Southern Seminary because it's quite remarkable and quite unprecedented knowing the history of this great institution and what was almost lost to see the Resurgence over the last 30 plus years is something remarkable in modern evangelicalism and
I pray that every student and every faculty member and staff member treasure the work the ongoing work of God's faithfulness and his steadfastness here at at at Southern Seminary the senior pastor Coal Ridge and we were talking about this last night D James Kennedy stood on this platform and told Dr Muller several years ago that seeing the Resurgence here at Southern Seminary would have been like the Presbyterians taking back Princeton that's how profound the Resurgence and the turnaround was here at Southern Seminary so grateful for the work that God continues to do here at Southern
and Boyce College I want to ask you a question how do you think Christianity and in particular evangelicalism is regarded today in America highly regarded not so I think it's fairly say that we live in a cultural moment where society and the cultural Elites are hostile towards Christianity particularly evangelicalism and so the question is for us in the 21st century men and women that will go out from this place ordained ministers and doctors and lawyers and Business Leaders and Educators how will we go out from this institution and survive in the midst of a culture
that is hostile to the Christian faith you know I often hear it said and I'm sure you've heard it as well that it's never been a worse time to be a Christian and with that I say we need a Long View of History ask the Christians in the first three centuries of the early church what they experienced amidst the political Empire of Rome ask the people of God as they were living through the Babylonian or the Assyrian cap activities we need a Long View of history and understand that every Christian generation has faced opposition and
that we need to remember that the Christian life is always lived in the belly of the Beast because our battle is not against flesh and blood we have historical precedent and we have great writings such as the writings of St Augustine when he wrote the city of God and he said out of the rubble of the city of man when Rome was falling arose the city of God which was the Church of Jesus Christ understanding that there's always been a conflict between two cities the city of God and the City of man so once again
I ask you how do we survive in this cultural moment well thanks be to God 2,000 years ago a man by the name of Jude wrote to the church a Timeless word of how to survive amidst a culture that is hostile to the Christian faith we're going to look briefly this morning at two verses in Jude verses 3 and four don't ask me what chapter for there's only one chapter in the book of Jude verses 3 and 4 let's read it together Jude 3 and 4 beloved although I was very eager to 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 or certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and to deny our master and Lord Jesus Christ the first thing that I want to point out in these two brief verses but profound verses is the call to contend in verse three Jude calls the church to contend and amidst these 25 verses in
Jude this is the heart and soul of the book of Jude this is the theme of the book of Jude it is a theme of contending the word contend in verse three means to strive or even fight using all available energy one Greek Lexicon says it is effort expended in a noble cause that is what it means to contend and make no mistake about it is is it it is an urgent call to contend it is not something that Jo Jude is calling for in a very passive manner but a very active and Urgent manner
he is raising the red flag it is an urgent call to expend all available energy in a noble call the bottom line is this Jude wants contenders and he wants them now and the question is what it's to contend for the faith he says in verse three the word faith here is not belief it is not the exercise of Faith but it is the faith the Christian faith in all of its finality what Jude is saying is there is a Faith Delivered once and for all to all the saints that that faith is Final in
its final form and Jude is calling the people of God in the first century to contend and to strive and to fight for it it's a lofty task he's not just saying I want you to contend for an idea or even contend just for an institution I want you to contend for Christianity that is what he's calling the church to do you can understand the sense of urgency you can understand the gravity of the matter of what Jude is calling the church to contend for but the second thing I want to point out is not
only the call to contend but the occasion for the contending what is happening in the church so so quickly after the ministry of Jesus that Jude would call for such an urgent call for contending what is the occasion for contending well we see it in verse four the occasion for contending is that certain people have crept in unnoticed who were long ago designated for condemnation ungodly people and and when Jude calls them C C people you can sense his disdain for them just calling them certain people but it's interesting he says these certain people the
occasion for contending is that these certain people have come in unnoticed they've crept into the church notice the great enemy in the early church wasn't necessarily outside of the church it was inside the church because false teaching always Creeps in unnoticed and it was false teaching even in the first century church that was creeping into the church unnoticed that was the occasion and the cause for contending the attacks were coming from within and they were attacking the purity of the church how were they attacking the purity of the church from within well Jude says that
they were perverting the grace of God into sensuality the word pervert here means to change or alter more specifically perverting the grace of God means that they were rejecting the law of God it's what Martin Luther would eventually call antinomianism that they were rejecting the moral imperatives of the Gospel yes we are saved by Jesus but we are saved to Jesus and when we begin to mess with sanctification as we were seeing already in the first century Church they were perverting the grace of God into sensuality and Jude says we contend we contend when the
gospel is messed with we contend when the grace of God is perverted into sensuality in the name of Christian Liberty and what's interesting is 2,000 years later nothing has changed you might be very familiar with leaders even within evangelicalism that will stand in the pulpit and they will boast and they will brag about their sinfulness and their licentiousness with a b as if it was a badge of honor nothing new Under the Sun it happened in the first century and it happens again today in the 21st Century false teachers creeping into the church perverting the
grace of the Gospel in the name of Christian Liberty distorting the moral imperatives of the gospel and therefore perverting the gospel and Jude says contend brothers and sisters contend for the faith the whole Council of God the gospel that not only redeems us and justifies us but also sanctifies us and mortifies sin but there's another way in which the P purity of the church was being threatened not only were false teachers creeping in unnoticed perverting the grace of God into sensuality but it also says in verse four they were denying Jesus as master and Lord
not only were they dealing with antinomianism but they were dealing with anti-authority yes I embrace Jesus as Savior but I don't know if I can truly Embrace him as Lord and Master and understand what they were facing in the first century Church they were told in their cultural context that there was one Lord and it was Caesar he was on the coin he was one you pledged your allegiance to you see the Romans didn't care what you believed they didn't even necessarily care what you worshiped as long as you pledged your ultimate allegiance to Caesar
as Lord so this was highly relevant in the first century to embrace Jesus means to embrace him as Lord and as master and once again in the 21st century church one of the fruits of antinomianism is the rejection of Jesus as Lord and Master we love the verse that Jesus proclaims that we are to come to him all ye who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest but we often forget the second half of that verse therefore take my yoke upon you you see Jesus when he becomes your savior and he
takes your heavy burdens upon him himself he then takes those heavy burdens and he puts his yoke upon us knowing that yoke is light but it is a yoke nevertheless that he becomes Lord and Master and in the modern church and the 21st century evangelicalism we see attempt after attempt to water down the gospel and to water down the truth claims and to to water down the realities that Jesus claims every square inch of Our Lives both private and public to do everything possible to yes present Jesus as the Savior but not to present Jesus
as Lord and Master we see people doing everything possible to take things out of Christianity in order to appease the masses it happened in the first century and we see it today in the 21st Century taking everything out in order to make Christianity relevant this is what Ma was facing with the onslaught of liberalism because the liberal Church said we want to still have a seat at the table and in order for Christianity to remain relevant we need to water down our message we need to reject the fundamentals of the faith and presign a present
a Kinder gentler Jesus that the culture and the world and Society can adapt to we see that there's nothing new Under the Sun the attack on biblical truth the attack today on the sufficiency of the Gospel the redefin even inside the church of gender and sexuality and the Embrace of Godless ideologies like critical race Theory all in the name of cultural relevance is only a sign that we are not willing to embrace Jesus as both Lord and Master and in the face of such opposition just as it was seen in the first church Jude calls
us in the 21st century Church in the midst of preparation for whatever calling the Lord has placed on your life and your heart he calls you today to contend to contend for the faith that was once delivered to all the saints that we stand in opposition to the world and we say to the world and we say to even those inside the church that want to tweak the faith and add to the faith or maybe even subtract from the faith it's not your faith to mess with it was delivered to the Saints once and for
all we don't add to it we don't subtract from it it is timeless and this faith that was once and for all delivered to the Saints it worked in the first century and it worked in the fifth century and it worked in the 16th century and the promise we cling to today that it works in the 21st century it's the hope and the faith that we cling to we don't need to adapt to the faith we contend for it and we fight for it and so every time you come to Chapel on Tuesdays and Thursdays
you know what you're doing you're contending for the faith every course you take here at Southern and Boyce you're preparing to contend for the faith every Sunday morning in worship you are contending for the faith when you participate in the work and the worship of the local church you're contending for the faith every Mission strip you're contending for the faith one day when you go out into your churches or into the marketplace or into the Public Square and you declare that Christ is King your contending for the faith so contend for the faith once and
for all delivered to all the saints but I know there's the objection there's the objection to all this contending and I know you've heard it and you will hear it won't all this talk of contending lead to division aren't we supposed to to seek the peace of the church that's in our that's in our commitment as Christians Blood Bought Christians we are to be ambassadors of reconciliation so how does this seeking reconciliation and seeking the Peace of the church square up with this call to contend well I want to ask you a question In this
passage who started the division was it those that were champions of Orthodoxy were they the ones causing division was it the ones that were contending for the Faith No the ones that were causing division were the ones that had crept in unnoticed it was the false teachers of the day that were causing the division what brought division in the early church and what always brings division is those that creep in and spread false teaching and in the 21st century Church it will always be heresy and false teaching that will ruin and divide the bride of
Christ and the LIE of the enemy is for you that cling to Orthodoxy the LIE of the enemy is for you to shut your mouth and to be silent as the church and den nominations are swept away and as they embrace the heretical and false teachings of their day no if we want to seek the peace of the church we contend for the faith because it's the only thing that will bring hope to a hopeless world it's the only thing that will keep Unity amidst the bride of Christ whether it be in the first century
or the 20 Century because we believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the hope of the world and it alone brings life and we say to the world and those that try to creep in unnoticed that this will not happen on our watch because you're depriving the world of the only thing that has the power to save that's why false teaching is not only wrong it's demonic because false teaching robs the world of the Glorious truth of the Gospel of the Kingdom the gospel that transforms Sinners and will one day restore the entire Cosmos
at the consummation sin is the ultimate killer and we have the ultimate answer and the most unloving thing to do in the midst of heresy and false teaching is to shut our mouths and to say nothing we protect the Peace of the church by contending for the faith so brothers and sisters never be ashamed of the faith the entire Faith because it's the only thing that brings life and it's the only hope for what Jesus CS a sinful and adulterous generation two words of application in closing in light of this Con call to contend we
must not be a people that love fighting we must not be a people that love fighting Jude says that I actually wanted to in verse three to write about our common salvation Jude is revealing the whole reason I wanted to write to you is to talk about the commonalities that we share because of our Union with Jesus Christ but Jude says I am full forced to call you to contend so therefore brothers and sisters we contend because we have to not because we want to we cannot be a church that loves contending we contend because
we have to not because we want to if we are a individual that is always looking for a fight that is not the posture that Jesus Christ has called us to to bring the hopeful message of the gospel to a lost and Dying World We contend because we have to and sometimes we even contend with tears when Jesus was contending for the faith he looks over Jerusalem and he calls them out and he says you murder the prophets but what does Jesus also do he weeps over Jerusalem so brothers and sisters contend but contend with
tears don't love fighting contend because you have to not because you want to second word of application don't be prideful we know that the only reason that we have the faith this morning is because of the unconditional Grace and The Sovereign mercy of a loving God who demonstrated his love towards us that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us the cross of Jesus Christ is a reminder of our great sin and a reminder of our great salvation so as you're contending do not do so with a spirit of arrogance or Pride but a
spirit of God centered humility and confidence understanding that the only reason that you are a Christian today contending for the faith in the 21st century is because of the grace of God God and without hope in his Sovereign Mercy I close with this a minister in our denomination Shawn Michael Lucas was doing a research project on faithful churches in North America over the last 200 years and there was three churches in particular that he wanted to understand their story and their history and these three churches were Point Breeze Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh Central Presbyterian Church
in Chattanooga Tennessee and United Presbyterian Church in Wheeling West Virginia churches that were known for their bold preaching known for advancing the Great Commission and biblical Orthodoxy but Sean Michael Lucas say says these three churches all have one thing in common today they no longer exist that even up into the 1950s these churches were preaching clear biblical Orthodoxy but in one generation they stopped contending for the faith Shawn Michael Lucas goes on to say it is a reminder that in one generation just one generation all can be lost and I leave you with this charge
here at Southern Seminary in Boyce college that past faithfulness does not guarantee future faithfulness what can be lost there can be lost here evangelicalism in North America is not Beyond this Southern Seminary and Boyce college is not Beyond this your family is not Beyond this it can be lost in just one generation so therefore brothers and sisters I call you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ who is our master and by the grace of the Holy Spirit go and contend let's pray our father and our God Lord I Thank you for the Timeless
word that we we are a church a contending church that contends for the faith once and for all delivered to the Saints I pray that we contend for the gospel the whole gospel that saves us through the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ but saves us to Jesus to be Sanctified to be set apart from this world that we contend for a faith that declares to a watching world that Christ Alone is Lord and King but Lord I pray that we would contend not with a spirit of arrogance or fear but that we would contend
with a posture of humility knowing it is only according to the grace of Jesus Christ that we have been saved and set free so may we contend not because we want to but because we have to because it is the faith deliver to us it is the faith that announces that there is only hope and the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ may we never ever be silent in the face of opposition and maybe even persecution because we realize that we are the bride of Christ here to safeguard and Steward the Church of Jesus
Christ that we are owners of nothing and stewards of everything so may we Steward this message and Steward the Church of Jesus Christ well on behalf of our King and Lord even Jesus the Christ and it's in his name we pray amen
