The Epistle of Jude was written as a stern warning to the Christians in the early Church; and yet Jude is primarily speaking to the believers living in these final days before the return of the Lord.
In these days of great spiritual conflict, ungodly men have crept into the Body of Christ in an effort to defile it.
“These men,” as Jude calls them, are trying to rob the believer of his faith. False Christ’s, false prophets, and great deception will come forth in an effort to undermine our faith.
We need to understand the subtle way that the enemy tries to deceive us and to destroy our faith. In these end times God is judging the ungodly and bringing forth His Church in purity, and above all He is causing us to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).
Most authorities agree that Jude was a brother of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, Jude did not boast of that fact.
In the salutation of his Epistle, he identified himself as a bond servant of Jesus Christ, and a brother of James. Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ. Jude 1.
It is assumed that James also was a brother of the Lord. An appearance to James is named among the resurrection appearances. This is not recorded in the gospels, but in Paul’s writings, in 1 Corinthians 15:7: then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. This James, the Lord’s own brother, is believed also to have written the Epistle of James.
The Roman Catholics claim that Mary did not have any more children after she gave birth to the Lord Jesus Christ and that she died a virgin. However, the Word only says that Joseph kept her a virgin until she had brought forth Jesus, the Son of God (Matthew 1:25). We assume that after this they had a normal marriage relationship, because the Word states that Jesus’ brothers and sisters came to inquire about Him (Matthew 12:46).
The saying that a prophet is not without honor except in his own country and among his own people is a true Word. There was a time when that was true in Jesus’ life (John 4:44). At one time, even His own brothers did not believe in Him (John 7:5). However, after the resurrection, when He appeared to James—His brother—His family began to have faith. By revelation, they were able to relate to Jesus Christ on a spiritual level.
Sometimes the human relationship gets in the way. When God raises up a prophet, an apostle, or a pastor, those who often have the greatest difficulty accepting his ministry and the call upon his life are his children or his wife. Can you understand why?
They have related to the man on the natural human plane for so long that they are unable to relate to him on the true spiritual plane. A husband and wife can be so used to the human relationship that they see one another after the flesh and cannot see one another after the spirit.
Jude overcame that human problem. He had such a revelation of the Lord Jesus to his heart, that he entered into a bondservant relationship with Him and called himself a bond servant of Jesus Christ.
The human physical relationship, the family tie, was not important to him at all; rather, the bond in the spirit was important. He was a bond servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is very important that our relationships, too, be clearly defined.
Jude 2 and 3 speak of the purpose that should be within our hearts: a contending for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
The implication here is not that we are trying to recover a faith; we are not struggling back to it. We are contending to walk in the faith which was delivered, once and for all time, to the saints. The restoration of the faith is a good way to speak of it, for the Lord is restoring the faith He once gave to the people of God.
After the revelation of a truth has been lost, tradition seems to accept the position of unbelief. That is true of people in this generation.
Suppose a thousand Christians were lined up in a row and they were asked, “How many of you are contending for the Lord to restore the Church as it was in the beginning, to bring forth apostles and prophets and New Testament order?” Probably all of them would shake their heads. In their thinking, that day is gone.
If they were asked, “How many of you are believing for miracles to return to the house of God?” a few might reply, “We would like to see divine healing,” or, “We would like to see a miracle”; but there is no earnest contending for it.
This faith was given to the Church once for all. At no time did the Lord state that He would cancel it. Fundamentalists excuse their unbelief by saying, “The day of miracles has passed. The Lord has removed it.” Then they quote 1 Corinthians 13:8–10: … if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. They say, “That proves it. The day has come in which the gifts of prophecy have been done away and the tongues have ceased.”
We will agree with these critics that prophecies have been done away and tongues have ceased if they will also admit that knowledge has been done away—in which case they would virtually be admitting that they know nothing.
If you are going to accept one part of the passage, accept it all. If prophecy, tongues, and revelation knowledge that come in the gifts are the childish state, how can anyone say that they have ceased?
This would mean that we have less now than we had at the infancy stage. This Scripture is not saying that these gifts will be done away; it simply says that they are partial, and they will be swallowed up in the perfect expression of God’s revelation. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. At that time, the forms we know of prophecy and of tongues and of revelation will be swallowed up in the perfect expression of revelation knowledge and revelation utterance.
When the perfect has come is not talking about the second coming of Jesus Christ. It is talking about the love of God being perfected in us. It is talking about coming into a spiritual maturity, where the revelation of the Lord flows into like a mighty river, and you speak a living Word of God, that totally amazes those who hear. Never have we heard a man or woman speak like this before!
1 Corinthians 13:11 brings an illustration from the natural realm: When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. When a child becomes a man, he puts away childish things.
In the meantime, we do not kill the child just because we want a man. You still may see a trace of the child in the man, but he has put away the childish things because the partial has been swallowed up in the perfection, As soon as the maturity comes, we do not call him a child anymore because the child is gone; now he is a mature man. The boy has developed into a man.
We are contending for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. This faith is not to be done away. It was given to us, and the potential to believe it is there. The faith was once for all given to the saints, and that means it is available now.
If people do not believe that this is the day and the hour when these things should be restored and that this is the time when the Lord is going to return, that is power of their choice, based upon their belief system. It makes no difference if they do not believe. It does not really matter to us whether or not this is the hour, because as far as our faith is concerned, the promises of God are yea and verily (2 Corinthians 1:20). Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). The promises are unchanging; the Lord has not canceled one promise. He has made a perfect faith for us and committed it to us, and we can walk in it today.
Let us go on to perfection! Let us believe that there is something far greater than we have walked in. Instead of believing for less, let us believe for more.
In his younger years, Harry Emerson Fosdick wrote an outstanding book on prayer. As he became more liberal and truly a Modernist, he believed less and less. However, in his later years, he began to revert back to faith.
He noticed that a certain trend was taking place in most churches. In their desire to please the scientific process of thought, they were believing in miracles less and less, while the world was becoming so miraculous that everyone else was believing more.
A doctor has to believe more today than a doctor did twenty years ago. If someone had told the average radio repairman forty years ago some of the things that would be discovered in his lifetime in the field of electronics, he would not have believed it. Today, a radio repairman not only has to believe it, but he must understand and be able to function in that knowledge as well.
The same thing is true of us. We should not be believing less and less; we should be believing more and more. We should not have a catechism or a creed that circumscribes our faith, because too often it is an arbitrary decision made by people who are saying, in effect, “We are protecting the faith. This is what our denomination believes.”
In protecting the faith, they have walled out everything else. We must go to the other extreme and contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints. We must believe that all things are possible to him who believes (Mark 9:23). We have to believe to move mountains. We have to believe for many things in this age that men in earlier times never even dreamed of believing for.
The peril and jeopardy of family experiences in this age is greater than in ages past. Life in modern society would be extremely dangerous, were it not for the grace of God.
Outbursts of violence occur unexpectedly most anyplace, making one aware of the perilous times that are coming in these last days. Don’t we need more of God today? Don’t we need to believe more? Don’t we need to have more immunity, more protection, and more faith than ever before? Let us contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints.
The faith was not delivered to be eroded away and to have men say, “Now that age is past; we do not believe for anything more.” You must grasp the fact that you need to be constantly expanding and contending for the full, complete faith that was once delivered to the saints.
It was committed for all time. If we lose it, it is our fault. If we were born in a generation that does not believe it, it is our problem. God has made it available. The counsels of God are immutable (Hebrews 6:17). His promises are unchanging. He has made a perfect provision for every need, for He wants us to have these blessings.
On some unconscious level of unbelief, we accept limitations. We do not have to accept the limitations that are on our faith at the present time.
The word contend refers to a battle. Declare war on your unbelief; constantly come to grips with it. Unbelief will creep in and choke out real faith. It can be deadly just to go along, accepting everything round about you, simply because everyone else is accepting a limitation on their faith.
Go back to Jesus’ promises in the Word: “All things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23). “Whatever you desire when you pray, believe you have received it and you shall have it” (Mark 11:24). “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:13). “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7). Don’t those promises work?
Certainly they work. All that is necessary is that people believe the Word of God. Until we begin to really contend for that faith, we will not have it. A relentless war must be waged against the encroachments (to intrude gradually or slyly, often taking away somebody’s authority, or rights) of unbelief.
Concerning this assent to a truth, the Word says that the demons also believe and tremble (James 2:19). This kind of mental belief does not save anyone. They believe that the Word is true, but they are not making any application to themselves for deliverance and salvation.
The demons in their rebellion, know that it is true, and it causes them to tremble. We have to do more than tremble because we know it is true. We have to do more than rejoice in it.
We must go one step further and declare, “I believe it is true, and that it is true for me. I believe that I am going to walk in it. Even if no one else in the entire world tries to walk in it, I still must come to grips with my unbelief and believe that God’s Word is true and that I can walk in it.”
Perhaps you accept and believe that the prophecies over you will be fulfilled some day, in the sweet by-and-by. What about today? Why aren’t you walking in them today? What about all the past months when God’s words were ineffective in your life? Do you believe those words? Do not say that you believe them if you do not really mean it. To assent in your mind to the truth of a word is one thing, but to believe it, to see it work, and to walk in it is something else.
Constantly the assault of unbelief comes against God’s people, and you know it is exactly what happens in your life. Again and again, the Word comes and blesses you, but somehow you allow it to be pushed to the back of your mind.
What would happen if we would totally take hold of even one truth? We could almost blow up the universe from the energy in one atom, if we only knew how to do it. One promise of God is like an atom. What will happen when the people of God come with real expectation and faith and believe God?
This is a day of restoration, and when people hear the Word, something is imparted to them. The Word goes forth with faith, but it is also united by faith in the hearts of those who hear it, and something is created (Hebrews 4:2).
In this day, to hear is to become. To hear is more than to just believe with your mind. To hear means God is speaking to you, it is called revelation. And it affects more than just your thoughts, it touches your emotions, so that you say “Wow” the entrance of his word into your heart gives light, we see things differently, it puts a desire in your will. When faith comes it is a package deal, it is the impartation of God into your life. God imparts Himself in the words that He speaks. When you hear it, faith has come, you have a Word to believe in. Faith has to come but it also has to work, and that is another message
This message has to do with contending for the faith, and that is a battle. I have heard the audible voice of God and I was battled upon it-hath God said? Did you really hear a word from God?
Usually people think that contending for the faith is a matter of going back to the days of Wesley or Luther. But they did not have it, for the restoration of the Church and of the faith had not progressed that far in their days.
It is in our generation that we are being challenged to believe for miracles. It is more than a dedication to what exists in the Church and a willingness to give our lives for the Lord. That may be only a martyr complex, a morbid attitude which says, in effect, “I’m going to lay my life down for the Lord. Actually, I’m not too happy with my life anyway.…”
Let us reach the place where we are determined to walk in everything we can, to walk in as many Bible experiences as we can. Whatever can happen to us, let us determine that it will happen. We do not want to spend our days without experiencing to the fullest extent everything that we can experience in God.
Sometimes we become so busy with the routines of our lives, and so preoccupied and distracted by God’s dealings and the problems we are facing, that we do not have that fresh approach every day of believing God and seeing happen what should happen. Are you guilty of this? Where is the level of unbelief in your heart? Is it below the surface? Why don’t you dig it up and see what an obnoxious thing it is before it undermines everything?
When there is a gopher in your yard, he soon creates havoc and destroys your plants. You may get rid of him by running water into his burrows and flushing him out.
When there are underground things of unbelief in your life below the surface, destroying the fruitfulness in your life, robbing you of what you want to become, ask the Lord to let the Holy Spirit deal with them.
What causes this underground unbelief? Many times a conditioning takes place because you have prayed for something and your prayer has not been answered.
Afterwards you may see that in His mercy the Lord was giving you something better than what you had even asked for.
But at the moment, you are conditioned to think, “He doesn’t love me. He doesn’t want to do anything for me.” You tend to abandon the idea that faith will work for you at all.
There is probably no lie of Satan so great as the one that makes you think, “God loves the whole world, but He doesn’t really care about me at all.” That thought will grow in any climate. We know that it is a lie, because we continually see evidences of God’s caring.
The day that you accept the lie that His Word does not apply to you personally because God does not care for you personally, that day you are in trouble.
To believe that it is for everyone else, but not for you, should be an occasion of declaring war against that attitude.
Determine that you are going to contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints. God is not a respecter of persons. He will meet every one of His children on the same basis of faith. All you have to do is believe it.
In your heart, do you believe that you can prophesy and work miracles? Do you believe that God will do great things through you? Do you believe that God will use you, that you are in the will of God, that God will direct your life? Can you believe that?
Can you believe that He will break down every hindrance (as you trust Him) that would prevent the perfect fulfillment of His will in your life? That is a big order, but let us just believe for it, as we contend earnestly for the faith.