Contend For Your Faith
“I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land…” Ezekiel 22:30
In the book of Jude, we see a crisis that is mirrored in America today. Jude said, “I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men who turned the grace of our God into lewdness, and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ…having given themselves over.”
There is a point where you give yourself over to a lifestyle, sin, and wickedness. This is when you are no longer convicted and no longer feel bad about sinning against God. You can get to a place where you stop hearing your conscience because you have “given yourself over.” But verse 3 says, “I earnestly exhort you to contend earnestly for the faith.” We must contend for the faith in these last days because there will be false teachers who will try to preach a different Gospel. The Bible, now by many, is regarded as an evil book. According to some, the Bible is filled with sexism, racism, homophobia, and oppression.
This false teaching says that abortion and gay marriage are “freedom,” and anyone who preaches the Bible is preaching a form of “hate speech.” Media, social media, the entertainment industry, government, schools, and Marxist universities are aligned to fight everything that we stand for biblically. An article just came out stating that most young adults in the UK today support a ban on the Bible. Today, you can get removed from the social media platform if you put up the wrong verse by itself without proper commentary.
We are called to “contend” or, as one translation says, “defend the faith.” Jude said, “Be careful because evil men will creep in.” We are seeing this in America. They're creeping in, saying the mutilation of genitalia is fine and that we should allow an eight-year-old boy to decide whether he wants to change into a girl. These are perfectly healthy young people, and the spirit of this world is twisting their minds to think they need surgeries to be fulfilled. Church, there comes a point where we have to contend.
The word contend denotes strenuous struggle. It means to expend one's energy in order to prevail. One translation tells us, “To fight standing upon the thing which is under assault.” There is a demonic pressure that is coming on all of us to blur the lines of the Word of God and eventually erase them completely. 2 Timothy 3:5 describes the state our country is in, “They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly.” There are too many lukewarm Christians who want to be accepted by the world and are afraid of offending anyone.
Psalms 14:2 says, “The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.” He is searching for His faithful ones. It is time to stand up and defend the timeless truths of God in this nation!
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