By Rev. Neil Cameron, St. Jude’s, Glasgow
“Ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
— JUDE 3.
There are two important reasons why the Church of God should contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. First. — The glory of God, in time, is so intimately connected with the revelation of His mind and name in the word of truth that the one is lost sight of as the other is ignored. (1) In the work of creation, as the Bible records it, the glory of the infinite wisdom, power and Godhead of the Trinity was made manifest. This is a mirror in which the psalmist saw much of His glory, when he exclaimed in an ecstasy of admiration, “When I consider thy heavens the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained; what is man that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that thou visitest him?” (2) Immediately upon the entrance of sin, the inexorable glory of His justice, holiness, and truth blazed with such effulgence from His throne throughout the whole rational creation, thoroughly convincing the angelic hosts, “that God hath no pleasure in wickedness; neither shall evil dwell with him. The foolish shall not stand in his sight; he hates all workers of iniquity.” They saw all this in “that God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.” The glory of His power and wisdom in creation, and of His justice, holiness, and truthfulness were all displayed anterior to the fall of Adam, and of his posterity in him. Adam yielded to the temptations of Satan, broke the covenant of his God, and thereby, the whole human race
immediately fell under the same sentence of condemnation with the angels that sinned. Satan may have thought that he had succeeded in ruining the whole human race, and in despoiling God of His glory in connection with the creation of man, and in destroying the image of God and His likeness in which man was created. The wisdom, power, justice, holiness, and truth of God would have remained impregnable forts defending His glory eternally; but Satan and man had obliterated, through sin, the obedience, reverence, and love due to God from His rational creatures of mankind. The victory seemed to be on the side of Satan. The whole human race were, willingly, his lawful captives, and were already on the way to hell. Who could deliver them? God’s justice demanded their eternal punishment in that everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. “Then thou spakest in vision of thy Holy One, and saidst, I have laid help upon One that is mighty.” “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” (3) Therefore a revelation of the free, sovereign love, purposes, mercy and grace of God was made to man, and therein the glory of the grace of God, in connection with the purpose of election, redemption, justification, sanctification, and glorification of sinners by the Mediator, or the seed of the woman held forth. The covenant of redemption or grace was brought to light whereby God should be glorified on earth, the works of the evil one destroyed, and the election of grace saved by Jesus Christ. Thus a glory accrues to God from the work of redemption, and restoration of guilty sinners that exceeds the glory of His justice in their condemnation. Against this glory of the grace of the Most High the adversary and his children have been contending since it has been revealed in this world. All the above facts are set forth in the Word of God, or “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
Second. — The eternal salvation of perishing and guilty sinners depends upon “this faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Again, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Therefore salvation is so absolutely connected with the Word of God that none of our lost race, capable of making use of it, can be saved without it. Infatuated he must be who endeavours its destruction, for “where there is no vision, the people perish.” Let us now in humble dependence upon the Spirit of truth, consider the words of the text.
I. — The cause of contention.
II. — The two contending parties.
III. — The method prescribed for the saints in their contending for the faith.
Jude, as a faithful servant of Jesus Christ, seeing the faith attacked, warned the saints of the imminent danger to which they were exposed. He reminded them that they had had warnings in the inspired writings of Christ’s apostles concerning this danger, and that they had much need of holding fast the form of sound words in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This was a duty which they owed to Christ’s cause, to some who were led astray by the craftiness of the enemies of the faith, and to mankind down to the end of time.
I. — The cause of contention is “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
(1) This embraces the whole Word of God. “The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.” “God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.” Again, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” This word God continued to commit to His own Church from the first promise in the garden of Eden till the record was solemnly closed by the book of Revelation. No book or portion of this heavenly record had to be delivered twice. The saints of the Most High kept this precious deposit most carefully in every generation. Thus was the word of reconciliation committed to and kept by the Church till it has come to our hands, and will be kept by Christ’s seed until He shall appear the second time sitting upon the great white throne. The Church is the pillar and ground of truth, and while she keeps lies without her ground, and the truth in its entirety emblazoned on her standards, she is terrible as an army with banners. The Church of Christ, taking her stand upon the rock of truth, overcomes by faith all her enemies. “My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever.” Nothing will overcome the devil, the world, and the flesh, but implicit faith in the Word of God. Who are the true Church? And how can they be distinguished? We answer briefly, “Where two or three are met together in my name.” The saints having His Word as a lamp to their feet and a light to their path listened
to the voice of God in that word, and refused to be led away by the delusions of Satan. The Bible contained their whole faith regarding spiritual and eternal realities and the purposes of God towards a guilty and perishing world. The word that proceeded from His mouth was of more value to them than thousands of gold and silver.
(2) It is of the utmost importance that the word of the truth of the gospel should be so firmly held by the Church that none could be acknowledged as a member who should doubt any part of it; but it is in the heart that the Lord is delighted with the truth. The faith was once delivered to the saints personally and subjectively. The true nature of saving faith which justifies before God must be held. An error here is certain ruin. “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Faith without charity or love is nothing.
All sinners are by nature dead in trespasses and in sins. The dead can never awaken themselves. When the Lord asked Ezekiel the question, “Can these bones live?” the prophet replied, “O Lord God, thou knowest.” The Holy Spirit, through the reading but especially the preaching of the Word, awakens the dead faculties of the guilty sinner to realise the wrath and curse of God’s law and justice, under which he lies. This is fully demonstrated by the Word of God. The three thousand on the day of Pentecost, and the Phillippian jailor are indubitable proofs. Then the sinner begins in agony to ask the question, “What must I do to be saved?” He has got no knowledge of saving faith, however elaborate his knowledge of the letter of the Word of God may have been. The Holy Spirit through the Word quickens the dead soul, regenerating it by the Word, and works faith in the soul, and enables it to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered in the Gospel. Christ by His Spirit comes into the heart, and dwells there, and the believer by faith enters into Christ — lives and walks in Him. This faith is described in Scripture as “the gift of God,” as “a most holy faith,” and as “a precious faith.” There is more in it than a mere assent to the historical facts and truthfulness of God’s Word, for many can lay claim to that rational faith who are never saved. “The devils believe and tremble.” Saving faith looks unto Christ in His humiliation, obedience, sufferings, and death, and lays hold, by the power of the Holy Ghost, upon Christ in all He did, and in all He now does before the throne of God, as the great High Priest, pleading the merit of His own death and shedding of blood upon Calvary’s cross. The sinner takes Christ as his own. The love of God is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost, and he is made exceeding glad in the reconciled countenance of God the Father in Christ. He calls upon the heavens, seas, earth, and all that they con-
tain to help him to sing of the mercy of God for ever. As he feels himself now taken out of the fearful pit and miry clay, and his feet set upon the rock, he can take a view of the prospect set before his eye in the Word of God. God shines into his heart, giving the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. Looking backwards, he sees the fountain from which all the grace and mercy flow which are revealed in this world, the electing love of God — Father, Son and Holy Ghost. The covenant of grace is unfolded to his mind, as it stands between the Father and the Son; the heart-melting love of Christ revealed in the pity and compassion of his humiliation, sufferings, and death, for sinners and for himself personally causes him to cry, “Who loved me, and gave himself for me;” the love of the Spirit by which He came to his guilty soul, awakened, quickened, and enlightened him in the knowledge of the fearful disease of sin, and of Jesus Christ, the great Physician; the pardon of sins which God, the Father, the Judge bestowed upon him, justifying him freely by imputing the righteousness of Christ to him, and bestowing faith upon him to receive Christ; the peace with God which flowed into his guilty soul in that moment in which the Spirit purged his guilty conscience from sin, and how this made all things new to him; the proof he had of this, in that the Spirit by the promise of the Word spoke it to his heart in some such words as these — “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” He is now amazed why other sinners are not seeing the beauty and the glory in Christ that fills his own soul with such delightful admiration. He cannot pass his fellow-sinners on the public road without urging them to believe in Christ and be saved. This is only a new-born babe. “As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby; if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” The Holy Spirit keeps the Word almost without ceasing in the mouth of faith, and the soul drinks in and is “satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.” Children are not fit for wars and contentions. They must be weaned and made to eat strong food, like men, before they are sent a warfare. “Whom shall he teach knowledge, and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts.” The psalmist knew these things when he said — “Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.” The weaned child by-and-by must be sent to school to learn. Into what school must he go? Christ says, “come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and
learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” The Apostle Paul describes what he learned in this school. “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere, and in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” The prophet Isaiah learned a difficult lesson before he became a soldier for Christ. “Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips: and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying. Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I: send me. And he said, Go.” Though a man had all the learning this world can furnish, and all the faiths imaginable, if he should be ignorant of the learning which can be found only at the feet of Christ, and of the faith which is above the power of man but which is the gift of God, he cannot “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” The weakest saint, who has got Christ dwelling in his heart by faith, will overcome all his enemies, and will come to the joys of eternal glory. “The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” But, as every inch of that way to Zion must be contended for by the sword of the Spirit, the believer need not expect rest by the way.
(To be continued)