Earnestly Contend for the Faith

"Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." -Jude 3

Brethren, there is a doctrine that is quickly creeping in upon us that we need to stand up and fight against. The word ‘contend’ means fight. We don’t fight in a carnal, earthly nature. But we fight clothed with the fruits of the Holy Spirit, brethren. We don’t contend like the world contends. But we contend in the fruits of the Spirit.

But it says we need to earnestly contend. And, I’ll tell you, some of those doctrines that are coming in … the faith that we are losing is that faith of holiness and sanctification in a believer’s life. That’s something that we are quickly losing. And if we’re not careful, if we do not stand up as brothers and sisters and earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints, it’s going to be gone. And the thing that we’ve taken for granted, our children are not even going to know it ever even existed. Because one generation loses it, and then the next generation … it’s gone. Until there is a renewal, until the Lord’s Spirit comes back upon the people, as He did so many times.

But, brethren, it says here we need to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. That there is not – as is being commonly promoted today – that you can live in the world and that you can still live in the church. That you can live in the world and still be a Christian.

Brethren, that’s not the faith that was once delivered to the saints. And we need to take a stance as brothers and sisters and we need to fight against those false doctrines. Not fighting in the sense of the way that the world does it. But we need to fight with the Scripture. We need to have the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word. Because this doctrine that is coming in that we can be a part of the world and part of the church is false. We cannot be a part of the world and a part of the church.

--Sermon Excerpt: Bro. D.D.