Subject:
Contending for the Faith
I. Introduction
To Those Called, Beloved, and Kept
A. To Build Up Themselves upon the Most Holy Faith and to Live in the Triune God
Contending for the Faith
I. Introduction
To Those Called, Beloved, and Kept
- Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept by Jesus Christ:
- Mercy to you and peace and love be multiplied.
- Beloved, while using all diligence to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you and exhort you to earnestly contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
- For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who of old have been written of beforehand for this judgment, ungodly men, perverting the grace of our God into licentiousness and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
- But I intend to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe;
- And angels who did not keep their own principality but abandoned their own dwelling place, He has kept in eternal bonds under gloom for the judgment of the great day;
- How Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who in like manner with these gave themselves over to fornication and went after different flesh, are set forth as an example, undergoing the penalty of eternal fire.
- Nevertheless in like manner these dreamers also defile the flesh and despise lordship and revile dignities.
- But Michael the archangel, when he contended with the devil and disputed concerning the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a reviling judgment against him but said, The Lord rebuke you.
- But these revile the things that they do not know; and the things that they understand naturally, like animals without reason, in these they are being corrupted.
- Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain and have rushed out in the error of Balaam for reward and have perished in the rebellion of Korah.
- These are the hidden reefs in your love feasts, feasting together with you without fear, shepherding themselves; waterless clouds being carried off by winds; autumn trees without fruit, having died twice, rooted up;
- Wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shames; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of darkness is kept for eternity.
- And Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied also of these, saying, Behold, the Lord came with myriads of His saints
- To execute judgment against all and to convict all the ungodly concerning all their ungodly works which they have done in ungodliness, and concerning all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.
- These are murmurers, complainers, going on according to their own lusts; and their mouth speaks great swelling things, flattering persons for the sake of advantage.
- But you, beloved, remember the words spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,
- That they said to you, In the last time there will be mockers, going on according to their own lusts for ungodliness.
- These are those who make divisions, soulish, having no spirit.
A. To Build Up Themselves upon the Most Holy Faith and to Live in the Triune God
- But you, beloved, building up yourselves upon your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,
- Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
- And on some have mercy, on those who are wavering;
- Save them by snatching them out of the fire. On others have mercy in fear, hating even the inner garment spotted from the flesh.
- But to Him who is able to guard you from stumbling and to set you before His glory without blemish in exultation,
- To the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, might, and authority before all time and now and unto all eternity. Amen.
