Contend For The Faith
At this hour it is time for us to stand united in Jesus Christ! The house falls when it is divided. It is time for the whole world to know who we are, what we believe, and that no demon or satan himself will take away our faith! Jude 3 says, "Beloved, all diligence using to write to you concerning the common salvation, I had necessity to write to you, exhorting to agonize for the faith once delivered to the saints"!! Jude, the brother of Jesus, that is half brother, found it necessary to write what the Spirit of God impressed upon him, faith needs contending for, agonizing for, protecting and keeping in these last days!! But why??
Why do we sit back and let our enemy come in like a flood, overwhelm us, cause us to feel frustrated, and leave us with our faith in tattered rags? Why does the writer of Hebrews caution us about unbelief? This is our salvation that will be destroyed if our faith is rendered harmless and even obsolete. We ought to know that we are in the last days as we live each day, as so many of us participate in forums about prophecy and its fulfillment! The apostasy is growing!
The question is with whom do we contend and agonize for our faith? Who is going to take it away? Perhaps the better question is, "Why would we give away our faith?" Jude reveals some information about this as well. Jude says, "for there did come in unobserved certain men, long ago having been written beforehand to this judgment, impious, the grace of our God perverting to lasciviousness, and our only Master, God, and Lord--Jesus Christ--denying, and to remind you I intend, you knowing once this, that the Lord, a people out of the land of Egypt having saved, again those who did not believe did destroy; messengers also, those who did not keep their own principality, but did leave their proper dwelling, to a judgment of a great day, in bonds everlasting, under darkness He hath kept, as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, in like manner to these, having given themselves to whoredom, and gone after other flesh, have been set before--an example, of fire age-during, justice suffering."
Jesus told of those in sheep clothing but inside were wolves, men who create an atmosphere of heresy, primarily a license to sin which is what IMO the doctrine of eternal security has done. Jude makes very clear what sin did to Sodom and Gomorrah; it brought them sure judgment just as it will bring this age sudden and just rewards. In this age of apostasy as Paul told the Thessalonians (great falling away), we must take Jude's advice as well and contend and agonize for the faith! Jesus said that judgment came upon the land in Noah's time, and His return would be just like Noah's time! The people laughed at Noah's preaching, ridiculed the message and the messenger, and they continued their lives they had made right up to when the ark door was shut by the Lord and the waters began to fall on them. It was too late. Whose message did they listen to? It was the "We're okay" meassage!
Look what Jesus said in Luke 21:34-36, "And take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts may be weighed down with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and anxieties of life, and suddenly that day may come on you, for as a snare it shall come on all those dwelling on the face of all the land, watch ye, then, in every season, praying that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are about to come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man." He tells His disciples to watch and pray! Why? So that they may be counted worthy to escape the coming evils!! How did Noah and the eight escape? The Lord revealed His coming judgments, commanded an ark to be built, and that Noah preach righteousness and the coming judgments. Noah obeyed and the Lord provided Psalm 91 to him and his family! Jesus wanted His disciples to escape the coming evils. Hmmm, it sounds like it contradicts something, the position of the rapture which is post tribulation. No contradiction for me. The Lord protected Israel in Goshen when He did His miracles in Egypt and led them forth with a mighty right arm. Goshen was the best of Egypt during Joseph's time, and the Lord during judgment placed a difference between Israel and Egypt!
Jesus just said to watch and pray. There is very little of this, prayer! Let's go back to Jude and see what else he says. Jude 20-23 says, "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh." Jude tells us to stand firm in the faith waging a war of faith that renders him defeated by the applied blood of Jesus, and we are vessels pulling down strongholds and used of God to save His people in these endtimes. It is time to contend for the faith. Far too many lives are at stake! People don't have to go the way of apostasy, and we must contend standing at the gates of hell pulling many out by force. Matthew 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.
If Jesus tells us to be watchful, and Jude tells us to contend for the faith, and Paul tells us to war in the Spirit, what else do we need to know? Such admonitions are given for a reason, and should we dismiss them by demonstrating a desire to save ourselves, show others a side that appears like Shirley McClain and others like her? There just seems to be something that doesn't fit! Okay guys, I'm ready for some help! Why are these things wrong? Are these men including the Son of Man really wrong? Can the New Age be correct? Will we spend time eternally with Him if we give up our faith because we chose to listen to the lukewarm message of nicey nice? Will the preachers of the nicey nice message spend eternity with Him? Can your soul be lost at the cost of your belief today? Is pride worth losing your soul? As for me and my house, we will contend for the faith and we will do it with all our might praying in the Spirit, and then grasping the ones that we can before it is too late. We are talking real lives!