Scripture Alone

(Jude1:3) “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.”

In this weeks study in scripture we will begin to confirm all that we have stated in our last two chapters concerning this most important topic, of what we have called “the greatest necessity for the church today”, namely, the unity of the faith. This means that the church is not only obliged, but, of the necessity of God’s eternal decree, will come into the unity of what this faith consists; that being the doctrine that was once delivered to the apostles, which they have all taught to their respective assemblies in all the epistles of the New Testament; and, of which doctrines, that there is no variation nor contradiction between the apostles teachings.

We have already shown that the apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter 4 exhorts christians to the unity of the Spirit and the unity of the faith, where these phrases describe an acknowledgment as to what the Christian teaching concerning the gospel of God is. And, that this teaching and all the doctrines that make up the Christian faith was entrusted to the apostles who were sent by our Lord to “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, … : Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you”(Mat 28:19,20) This is the call that the apostles were tasked with. “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:”(Eph 4:12)

Jude in verse 3 of his epistle writes “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”. Here we see clearly that very task of teaching the doctrines of the faith as Jude calls it; the apostle Paul calls the Christian teaching by the same name, the faith. Jude here also tells us that this faith, “was delivered (once and for ever) unto the saints”. We say once and forever, because the aorist tense is used for this word for delivered; and this means that it was delivered once in the past and it will not happen again. And, the saints that Jude describes as having received these doctrines of the Christian faith are of course, the apostles themselves.

Jude addresses the saints in his epistle as having “the common salvation”, i.e. the salvation that is common to all christians, namely the salvation that God has revealed in His gospel “by faith to faith”. Paul uses a similar expression in writing to Titus “To Titus, mine own son after the common faith…” Also, Jude has already wrote to these Christians about what that common salvation is. The common salvation is the doctrines having been expounded by him to these saints with “all diligence”, which can be rendered as with great care; for two reasons was Jude diligent and careful; one, because Jude was eager to share the doctrines of truth, as it is his call and a joy and a privilege to do so; and second, because of the severity of the situation as it is described in this epistle; namely the fact that there were “ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness,” in the assemblies; and, not only were they members in them, but they were claiming to be teachers and preachers of the gospel. This is a common theme of warning amongst all the writings of the New Testament; and it is more than common today.

So, we can see that the contending for the faith that the apostle Jude is here calling for is exactly the same faith that the apostle Paul was calling for the Ephesians to contend and defend by heeding the apostles teachings and being aware of the wolves which seek to turn the truth of God’s gospel into filthy lucre to fill their bellies and delight their own pride. The Ephesians were apparently very good at holding to the strict doctrine of the apostle Paul, for we read in Revelation chapter two verse two that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself commends them for doing so:

“I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:” (Rev. 2:2)

Jude then describes how terrible these ungodly men (and women) are in the most severe and graphic language; comparing them to Sodom and Gomorrha “giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”(vs 7) That they’ve “gone in the way of Cain”, and run to error of Balaam for a reward of their greed and become argumentative like Korah was against Moses. Not only this but Jude goes on to tell us that these false Christians “are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;”. They are a blemish and bring dishonour to the name of our precious Lord, of who’s name we also have as Christian!

Jude tells us outright that these are not Christians! “remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.”(vss 17-19) These are professing Christians, these are the “certain men (who) crept in unawares”. The intent of Jude’s epistle is to exhort these christians to lean on their understanding of the true doctrines of the faith that they might be armed with the armour of God and be able to contend for this precious faith that these ungodly types are determined to defile and pervert. These defilers are without honour and “speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts,”. Dear reader, does it not seem as though these defilers should be so plain and obvious that none of us should be deceived by them? Well they are of the devil and like their father the devil they are the most subtle beasts of the field. How else could they creep in unawares? “These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.”(vs 16) They flatter whom they fear and whom they hope to gain some advantage from, they use all the wiles of the devil to feed off the visible church of God and her saints.

So, Jude again mentions our only defence to these devils “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.”(vs20,21). We now have the four fold cure as prescribed by the apostle. Namely, building ourselves, as in continually and never ceasing, in the doctrines and the knowledge of our faith as taught by the apostles. Praying in the Holy Spirit! It’s the christians greatest weapon; the fact that God dwells in us and that we can petition our Father through our Lord who is seated at His right hand, who is our high priest and “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Notice the order here, knowledge of doctrine is first and comes before our praying in the Holy Spirit. Like the apostles asked the Lord, we too must seek the knowledge to ask Him “Lord, teach us to pray,” The Lord taught His disciples with doctrine to pray and we too must know doctrine in order to pray. Third, we must be and stay in the love of God, which is our guardian, it’s what keeps us from apostasy and causes us to endure till the end. And finally, eternal life, of which is by mercy of our Lord and nothing else, keeping our eyes on His worthiness and knowing our unworthiness except that we have His precious blood as our salvation. For He is the judge and it is only by His mercy that we have this life everlasting. Jude wants us to know that our “most holy faith” is of the utmost importance, not only for our growth as christians but also for our protection from the wiles of the devil and his agents in the visible church.

What have we thus learned from these two apostles concerning the question of what is this faith of which they both speak? We have learned that there is indeed a faith that comprises the entirety of the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and that these teachings, which are called by us the doctrines of the faith, were, in the past, given to all of the apostles in their entirety. We also know that these teachings are the very same teachings that are contained in the entirety of the New Testament writings. And though we do not have the apostle Jude’s epistle that contains these teachings that he alludes to we do in fact have many of the apostle Paul’s teachings; and Paul’s epistles are complete and full, and are lacking nothing in regards to the essential doctrines of this our most glorious faith.

In conclusion, we as Christians must contend for the faith that the apostles teach. We have no excuse to make up our own opinions and satisfy our own despicable fleshly desires but changing the doctrines of the apostles into pulp fiction philosophy or to change the worshipping of God through Christ into a worshipping of our own desires to be modern and contemporary with the culture of the world that surrounds us. We are in a most desperate time in this history of God’s church. The visible church today looks little different than a swinging night club full of doctrinal predators just waiting for some unsuspecting victim to turn away from their glass half full of doctrine so that they can slip them a Mickey Finn and drug the poor soul and drag them off into an alley of spiritual despair; where they will literally be destroyed and left in a dumpster to die outside of the assurance of the gospel.