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  A CALL TO DEFEND： A STUDY THROUGH THE EPISTLE OF JUDE
  by Shane Idleman
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of fully surrendering to
God and contending for the faith. It highlights the need to confront
sin, defend the truth, and stand up for what is right, even in the face
of opposition. The speaker urges listeners to return to their first
love, fully surrender their lives to God, and experience the
transformation that comes from a spirit-filled life.

Topics: "Full Surrender", "Contending for the Faith"
Scripture References: Matthew 11:28, Psalm 139:23, Mark 9:24, John 14:6, Jeremiah 29:13, Amos 5:4, Joel 2:13, Jeremiah 3:12

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of fully surrendering to God and
contending for the faith. It highlights the need to confront sin, defend
the truth, and stand up for what is right, even in the face of
opposition. The speaker urges listeners to return to their first love,
fully surrender their lives to God, and experience the transformation
that comes from a spirit-filled life.

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CONTENT
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Switched that recently. So, A Call to Defend, the book of Jude, you'll
find in the New Testament, obviously. And it doesn't make for easy
reading.

I love the book, but those who are carnal, those who are false prophets,
false teachers, they won't even avoid it. They'll get the scissors out
on that one. Because it's just calling it out.

And sometimes, you know, it's good to do that. We have this impression
in the church that we're just supposed to be doormats. You know, just
love them in their sin.

Never confront the sin. No, no, no, no, no. How dare we? Just love them.

And we do have to have love as our underlying, undergirding umbrella
motive. Of course, it all has to come from love. But there is a time to
defend the truth and stand up for the truth and things that are right.

Especially in the church, in our country. And what I'm gonna do when I'm
talking about a lot of these things, God's given us different callings.
So for me to defend the truth, it's gonna look a lot different than you
defending it sometimes.

You might just be witnessing to your neighbor, to your friends, and that
is the same as what I'm doing. Sometimes we think, oh, what you're doing
is so much bigger and better. No, it's not.

It's just calling. It's gifting. What God has called a single mom to do,
and her spear of influence is no different than what I'm doing this
morning.

Because we have different gifting, different callings, and you can
defend the faith and stand up for the faith in your community and with
your friends. And I've seen so many people, they'll say this. Well,
that's your job, Shane.

Well, that's what you're supposed to do. Well, we're all supposed to
defend the faith and to some degree. So keep that in mind as we look at
the book of Jude.

Chapter one, actually, there's no chapters. It's just verse one. Jude,
who is a bondservant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James, to those
who are called, meaning to those who are believers.

This is a specific letter to those who are called of God, the believers,
sanctified by God the Father, meaning they've been changed, they've been
transformed by God, and preserved by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ holds
us. He holds our faith together.

Mercy, peace, and love will be multiplied to you. So let me just stop
there for a minute. Most scholars identify the writer as Jude, the half-
brother of Jesus.

So he might know a little bit about what he's talking about, I'm
thinking. He came to know Christ as Redeemer and Savior later on in his
life. Obviously, his family members at first didn't believe.

And what he's doing, he is writing a plea, a plea to defend the faith.
And many times when you plea, you turn up the volume. If I'm pleading
with you, it's probably not gonna be like this.

Okay, guys, next week, we're gonna try to be here, try to defend the
faith. And you're like, what is it, what? No, pleading has some volume
in it. It's got some edge to it, that knife.

It's a pleading, it's a slap in the face. And that's what Jude does, he
slaps us in the face. It's a hard book, but it's very good.

And the irony is, I learned this this week, when he talks about mercy,
peace, and love will be multiplied to you. Do any of you want that this
morning? Do you want mercy, do you want peace in your life, do you want
the love of God in your life? It often follows those who contend for the
faith. Because when we don't contend, what's the opposite of contending?
Coward.

Coward. Closet Christianity. I'll never forget, I worked in
construction, some of you know, many years ago, it was a water district
here in town, I ran heavy equipment.

Very stressful job crossing gas mains and water mains and different
things. But I worked with two guys separately. And I've talked to this
guy about faith, he went forward in a Billy Graham crusade, loved the
Lord, I mean, at least he said it, and we talked all the time about it.

Then I had this other guy, his name was Heath, I won't mention other
last names. And I love this guy, younger kid, we talked about, I'm
trying to get him back on track, he's going to church here locally, and
we're talking about God a lot, and pretty much every, one day, we all
worked together. Now these guys had been working together at that point
about three months.

And so now we're all working together, I bring up the topic of, somehow
God came up, and they said to each other, I didn't know you were a
Christian. Well, I didn't know you were either. Like, you guys have been
working together for three months.

Closet, Christianity. They'll talk about alcohol and the game,
pornography, but not God. Now, they're either not saved, or they're very
carnal in their walk.

They're not filled with the Holy Spirit of God. So they will not
experience mercy, peace, and love, because that boldness of the Holy
Spirit is not there, they're not contending, they're not living like God
has called us to live. So be encouraged in this.

When you step out in boldness and contend, these things will follow you.
You will have love and peace, and maybe that's what some of you are
missing this morning. If God feels distant, you don't have the love of
God that you used to, there's not a lot of peace, there's a lot of
turmoil, and you're avoiding controversy.

You're not talking about God much, if at all. There's not a lot of peace
in that, because that's not what you were called to do. Just like when
it comes in, that healthy, like up at the High Sierras, I've talked
about this before, that beautiful river out of the June Lake Loop and
Rush Creek, and runs, beautiful, runs right into Grant Lake, and then
out of Grant Lake into Mono Lake.

Oh, it's dead, it smells. Nothing, I think brine shrimp is the only
thing living there. But this beautiful water's coming in, but nothing's
going out.

There has to be an outlet, so as we're getting fed, we go out, that's
where the health comes from. Healthy heart, mercy, love, and that's one
of the reasons why we promote the hospital homes. We have hospital
homes, every Sunday, people leave here, and they will go out and
minister to people, and often, I hear this, and I love it, I don't get
upset, that was better than going to church.

And I'm happy when they say that. Shane, you wouldn't believe this
person. I encouraged them, I went to Walmart, bought them socks, I put
them in connection with their family again, I prayed with them.

See, that's what we're supposed to do. And I've been there myself. We
sit in the pew, we get fed, and that's about it.

And that's why often there's not a lot of peace and love in our lives,
and we're not doing things for God. If we were to take a survey, I would
think that many of you in this room would want to do a lot more for God
than you are right now. I go through those seasons, I feel that way
sometimes too.

And a lot of it is because when I'm not giving. Fortunately, I get to
give right now. Give of what God's put in my heart, but that doesn't
take the place of giving outside of the church.

Another big misconception is the church is just where we come like a pep
rally. We worship God, we get built up, we equip the saints to go out
and do the work. But what's happening a lot of times is we don't go out
and do anything.

We just come here locally and get fed. A coward has little fellowship
with God. They miss out on his powerful presence.

And I'm not using that word coward to poke fun. I have to go back and
forth with this word too. Sometimes I cower back from things and should
be more bold.

I should be more lovingly aggressive. What I mean is pursuing people and
their faith, when they lack faith, and go out and kind of talk to them.
So this is a struggle we all have, but I think Jude makes it clear that
we need to defend the faith.

He goes on here in verse three. Beloved, while I was very diligent to
write to you concerning our common salvation. So he was very diligent.

He wanted to write about their common salvation. He says, but I found it
necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the
faith which was once and all delivered to the saints. So it's kind of
this change here.

I'm writing to you about the common salvation. However, there's a call
that needs to go out exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith.
Now, is anybody kind of curious about or upset about what's going on in
our nation? Or is it just me? I better stay out of that for a little
while.

But the problem is many people don't contend. We don't say a lot. We
don't challenge in love.

But it has to be inspired, motivated, and inspired, motivated, and
ultimately driven by the Holy Spirit or it won't go anywhere. Because if
all I'm doing is contending and the cheerleaders are being encouraged
and I'm upsetting everybody else and nobody in the middle is being
changed, that doesn't accomplish a lot. Politics won't save us, but
prayer will.

Protesting won't save us, even though it's a good idea sometimes, but
prayer will and the power and the moving of the Holy Spirit. And often,
he changes things through bold contending for the faith. What are we
celebrating Monday? What happened? It ruffled some feathers.

The abolition of slavery even before that ruffled some feathers. The big
movement now trying to stop the murdering of innocent children in the
womb. When you contend, it gets interesting.

And I heard a video, I think it was Ben Shapiro speaking at the Right to
Life. I was kind of bummed. I was asked to speak at one of their
gatherings a couple years ago and I wasn't able to.

I've always regretted that. But anyway, he said something not along
these lines, but I thought, you know, I wanna share that with you. And
I'm gonna kind of paraphrase here.

But the position sometimes we take, what I take, especially from this
church, what you take, that's why you're here, is we're labeled
sometimes as extreme. And you have to get to the point, you say, you
know what, you are absolutely right. We are living in extremely critical
times.

This is not time for passivity. This is a time to be extreme. Not
violent, extreme.

Fasting, prayer, seeking God, worshiping, contending God, pull down
heaven, change our churches, change our nation. So he's saying here,
don't wear out. Don't wear out.

I'm exhorting you, I'm encouraging you to still contend earnestly for
the faith. Contend for the things that are right. Contend for the things
that are righteous.

I will tell you up front that anytime you contend for what is right and
contend for what is righteous, you will be mocked. You will be
ridiculed. There is a battle, there is a fight.

You're not gonna stand up for the truth of God's Word and everybody's
going to like you in your school district. Or in the governmental
offices. I'm not talking about going out and getting fired.

I think we should be the best example of an employee wherever we are at.
Gracious and loving and understanding. But there's a boldness there.

So however you do that, write, speak, blog, pray, contend somehow. And
if you don't know what to do, here's a good prayer. I prayed this prayer
before, oh boy, 18, 19 years ago and I had no idea how God would answer
it.

God, help me. Show me how you want me to contend. What have you called
me to show? Lord, show me.

That's what some of you should pray this morning. How should I contend?
And contend doesn't mean fighting all the time. It just means standing
up for what is right.

We're contending, we're holding the ground. You can be loving, you can
be firm, you can be gentle. Some of you have it in your hands.

If not, it's on our website or at least shaneidelman.com and a lot of
news organizations picked it up the last few days and a few more are
picking it up this week. Interestingly enough, I got an email from the
lady who did my last Fox News interview and she's interested in possibly
me talking about this with somebody on the other side on a podcast. I
don't know if that would go anywhere.

But the title is An Open Letter to the United States of America. The
atrocious demeanor of our elected officials must stop. From F-bombs and
death threats towards our president to the total lack of humility in
governmental offices, our arrogance has reached a new level.

We are calling good evil and evil good. We turn a blind eye to sexual
sin and wink at pedophilia. Well, where is the outrage? What I also
included is there was recently a posted a photo to Instagram showing a
10-year-old transgender boy who was next to a naked man.

Where is the outrage? America, your silence is deafening. Yet we have a
mental breakdown when a border wall is being considered. And I don't
mind different views on this, but my Lord, put things in perspective.

We protect LGBT rights and I love those people, but we murder the
innocent children in the womb. We encourage children to switch genders
but not turn to the one true and living God, the only true source of
hope and peace. Our schools resemble battlegrounds and our families
remain shattered while churches stay silent.

It appears that pastors would rather cave in than fight, tickle the ear
than challenge the heart. And our pride will be our downfall. Are we
striving to be pleasers of men or pleasers of God? And I went on to say,
what kind of a nation do we live in where a newly elected congresswoman
can tweet and peach the explicit about our president? Any president,
Obama, Clinton, Bush, our current president.

Where in God's green earth do we live where that is allowed? To say that
I and countless Americans are embarrassed is an understatement. Many of
our leaders need to look in the mirror and repent or resign. And that is
a portion of contending for the faith.

It's a platform God's given me. Not everyone, I don't like this
platform. I wrote this whole article down in five minutes.

And then I had some editors work on it. But it needs to be said. When
God gives us that burning fire.

And Jude is also a call to passive believers. Silence is not always an
option. When we are filled with the world, we are not bold.

I think that could be the problem, some of you listening to this right
now. When you are filled with the world, when I'm filled with the world,
I'm not bold. What am I bold with? I'm bold with the things of the
world.

But the more you read God's word, just spend some time in Psalm, the
Psalms. When you spend time in that word, this boldness comes out of
you. I like what Vance Havner said.

The tragedy today is that the times are desperate, but the saints are
not. So content here means earnestly, sincere. There's an intense
conviction.

And if you say, but Shane, I just don't have that. You will not have
that without the empowerment and filling of the Holy Spirit. You won't,
I won't.

Nobody's gonna contend for the faith without that. So you have to ask
for that filling, that mighty empowerment of the Holy Spirit. And he
says here, once and for all, there is a finality.

There is one gospel, one truth, one God. There's a finality. There's not
many different gospels.

He says, once and for all, deliver to the saints. What was delivered is
it. So here's the key that we can take from this.

Don't be a closet Christian. Step out in faith. Begin to witness.

But Shane, I don't know what to do. Do you have friends? Do you have
family members? Just say, hey, have you ever thought about God? Do you
know where you'll spend eternity? And you can open some good dialogue
and begin to contend for the faith. Or, and this is a different call,
don't hide behind a judgmental attitude with the words, I'm defending
the faith.

See, on the flip side of this, it's really ugly. Because on one hand,
you guys can be the passive side. Well, let me, that doesn't look good.

Let's do this side, easier to remember. You're the passive side. Okay,
and it's a call not to be passive.

But this side, it's equally dangerous. And this is the person who yells
and screams and is mean and nasty, and they say, but I'm defending the
faith. They put down everybody online.

They're a modern day Pharisee. They're not defending the faith. They're
pulling down everybody and everything.

And so we have to find that balance. Because most people will gravitate
or tilt one side to the other, right? Type A's over here. Type A
personality, judgmental, can just tell them like it is.

There's no black, there's no gray. It's black and white, and I'm gonna
defend the faith. And you have these heresy hunters.

They're looking for sin in everybody's life. And we get those emails
too. Oh, I can't believe you played some of those songs.

I thought you were a solid church. What songs are you talking about?
It's because they don't meet your criteria? You don't like emotional
songs? So you're gonna put down things? You misquoted Proverbs. Yeah,
and I might misquote a scripture today.

We're imperfect people talking about a perfect God. See, modern day
Pharisees, that's dangerous because they love this verse. They use all
capital letters and explanation points.

Two or three of them, they don't know grammar rules, say just one is
fine. Capital letters, this, I'm contending for the faith. No, you are
an arrogant Pharisee.

And often it's conservatives bashing charismatics or those who embrace
the work of the Spirit is where a lot of this comes from. I don't know
if I should go here, but I will. I saw a video, I'm not gonna name
names, of some people critiquing Beth Moore because she believed God
spoke to her and told her to do something.

I'm sitting there, what's wrong with that? Long as it lines up with
scripture, it's edifying others, it's building up others, it's
encouraging others, God does lead. Sometimes through things we're not
quite clear with. I think it was, she felt God told her to go and comb
this guy's hair at the airport.

He looked like he just got out of the hospital or something. And they
were mocking her going, oh no, God would never tell you that. He's just
gonna tell you to go preach the gospel.

Yeah, that's gonna happen, that's coming. That's coming, but you might
have to step out in love first. Arrogant Pharisees, arrogant Pharisees
who think they're defending the truth and they're actually quenching the
work of the Holy Spirit.

They'll bash anybody. Matt Chandler has a dream that he believed God
gave to him. Oh, that must be heretical.

No, it's biblical. Joseph, Mary, you might wanna go a different
direction. The wise men, hair's gonna kill you.

You might wanna go a different direction. Jacob, I mean, I don't
understand it. I don't embrace it.

I'm not this guy caught up in dreams, but I know God can do whatever he
wants. He can warn somebody through a dream. If it lines up with
scripture and it edifies and it builds you up, but what do they say?
We're contending for the faith.

We've gotta pull these people down. No, you're not. You are an arrogant
Pharisee that needs to stop.

You have sound doctrine, but you don't have a right heart. Oh, don't, I
could stay there a while. The irony is, here's the truth.

We're just not well known enough yet to be on their hit list. I
guarantee they would tear me apart just like they tear them apart. If
you embrace the work of the Holy Spirit, conservative Christians will
mock you because they've never experienced that move of God.

I think many times they're prideful, they're jealous. They've never
experienced that, so it can't be true. I've got a master's degree in
divinity.

Yeah, but does a master have your heart? So be careful in this area,
ask, and I'm not in any way, shape, or form throwing bad doctrine
underneath. Let's hide it, let's just get crazy, let's get odd, let's
get weird. No, let's hold the sound doctrine, contend for absolute truth
in a postmodern culture.

We love the truth, we put everything through the filter of truth, but
let's not put God in a box. And then pull apart those who seem to meet
God at a deep level. And these same churches would mock a church where
there's people at the altar weeping.

Oh, that's emotionalism. No, that's people experiencing God, straight
up. I came to shoot you straight this morning because I'm tired of some
of these Pharisees and heresy hunters.

So here's a little quotation that might help. There we go. People say,
okay, Shane, I understand, and I saw this on Facebook, I told her I
might use these, but I don't know what to say.

Amen? Can you relate to that one? I can sometimes. I got a little
tongue-tied, you might find this funny. Me and my wife were out of town
just for a few days, and we're talking, this guy, he seemed so nice.

You know, he could tell he's, you know, just God's Word, Scripture, he
was living it. And come to find out, he's a Mormon. I'm sitting there,
we're having, kind of eating lunch, I'm like, oh, mm.

Do I listen for a little while? Do I say anything? You know, and he
goes, oh, your non-denominational church? My friend is, and he tells me
I'm going to hell because I, you know, believe in all these. I said, oh,
that's interesting. You know, what do you, you know, kind of listen.

What are you trusting in? So it caught me off guard, because I wasn't
prepared for that. So what do you say? Fortunately, I gave him a book
and said, here, contact me if you have some questions. I want to talk to
you about this a little bit more, but it wasn't the right setting.

Also, how do you say it? How do I say it? Or they'll take it the wrong
way. What about this one? But I'm not a good example. I'm not a perfect
example.

They see my life. They see my life. Let's talk about these briefly.

I don't know what to say. What I recommend is learn a few things. Learn
a few things about your faith, just bullet points that you can grow in
and learn, and do you know what Mormonism believes, or Jehovah Witness,
or different cults? Fortunately, you don't have to have a whole list.

You ask them, what do you do with Jesus Christ? Because most of them
will add to the work on the cross. Well, yeah, we believe in Jesus too,
but you have to be a member of our church. We believe in Jesus too, but
you have to worship on Saturday.

We believe in Jesus too, but you have to go door to door and knock and
do good things. And so you can isolate and have some scriptures handy,
that not by works and by faith alone, and that he's the only way, the
only truth, the only life. And just be prepared.

Don't try to just wing it. Do a little bit of studying. Contend for the
faith.

Study yourself to be approved, rightly dividing the word of truth. And
also, watch Ray Comfort sometimes. His videos are funny.

Dave told me he spoke here, right here, 15 years ago or so, 16 years
ago. So that's what I do. I watch a lot of videos.

I read books. I read the Bible, of course. And you just have a better
understanding of what your friends believe.

How do you say it? Well, that's pretty easy. Say it with love. You seek
to listen.

You never wanna go into this, I'm gonna win this argument. No. No, no,
no.

You enter with love. And you listen to them. And with the person I was
talking to, I would listen and say, have you thought about this? Because
either Jesus Christ is right or Joseph Smith is right.

You can't have them both. What do you mean? Well, did you know that
Jesus said this? That God is not human. He's spirit, and those who
worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.

And God was from creation. God's always been in his state. Joseph Smith
said that God was once like us.

God was once like us, me, and someday I'll be like God. Did you know
that Bible calls that blasphemy? What do you mean? Well, we're not like
God, and God's not, was not like us. And you just, and you give them
things to think about.

Remember, you're not trying to win an argument. You're just planting
seeds. They'll take it the wrong way.

Yeah, they might. They may take it the wrong way, but if it comes from
love, you planted seeds. I've had a lot of discussions, which I'm sure
some of you have with atheists or Mormon, different groups, and often,
I'd say nine times out of 10, it ends fine.

LGBT and those who struggle with homosexuality, and I look at them as
anyone who struggles with any other sin. There's not way up here on the
sin, anybody struggling with sin. We love them, we point them to the
cross, we point them to Jesus Christ, the hope.

And they can listen to you, and hear you, and hear your heart, if you're
not arguing, and your tone's respectful, and hey, have you considered
this? Well, I appreciate your heart. Boy, you really seem to have a
sincere faith in what you're believing, but we can be sincerely wrong.
Do you want me to show you? And it's often not what you say, but how you
say it.

But ultimately, yes, you will ruffle some feathers. The gospel ruffles
feathers. And we have to remember that.

But I'm not a perfect example. Well, for me, not being a perfect example
is a great opportunity to share why we need Jesus. And you can even tell
the person, hey, you've seen me before.

You've seen me get angry and upset, and I apologize for that. You've
seen me do this and hold an unforgiveness, and I've apologized for that.
You've seen this in me, and that's why I need Jesus.

We're not perfect, and see, that's a big misconception out there. A
friend of mine was struggling on Facebook, and I was gonna respond, but
I didn't. Somebody I'm kind of helping with, I've known for a long time,
struggling with alcohol, and keeps falling into it, and he's posting
things like I'm a hypocrite, I can't do this.

And I wanna remind him, you're struggling. You're struggling. A
hypocrite is someone who intentionally deceives you.

The word, it's a Greek word that comes from putting on a mask. I'm this
today, I'm this tomorrow. So there's not a lot of hypocrites in the
church.

There are, coming in to intentionally deceive. Oh, praise you, brother,
knowing they're gonna leave here and just be as mean and nasty as ever.
They're a hypocrite.

But somebody who's struggling in sin is not a hypocrite. If there's
anybody in this room not struggling with sin, I would love to meet you
after the service. Tell me, how do you accomplish that? How do you keep
that tongue in your mouth? And that anger, you know, lashing out at
people, you got anger, how do you keep that? How do you not stumble or
fumble here and there? So see, we have to encourage people, and it's a
perfect example.

And when I was in construction, I was not a good example sometimes. They
knew I didn't drink, they knew I didn't do anything, but boy, I almost
beat the tar out of this one guy. It wasn't good, I had to go back and I
apologized.

So it wasn't right of me, you know, and I apologized and said, but if
you open your mouth like that again, I'm gonna pop you. But joking with
them, you know, and so I had to ask for forgiveness a few different
times. But people see that, see, that's what, see, people see, when you
do that, they see that it's genuine.

Okay, it's real. I like this person because they see it anyway, we might
as well admit it. But here's how many people get out of contending.

We say, I'm not their judge and I'm not their jury. I see these mega
pastors on like the Today Show and Oprah, different things, and the
question often comes up, you know, well, what do you think about gay
marriage? What do you tell gay? Well, I'm not the judge, I'm not their
jury. What do you think about Mormon? Oh, I'm not their judge, I'm not
their jury.

I'm just called Oprah to love people. No, you're a coward. You've just
been given an opportunity to tell millions of people the truth that,
hey, I love all these people.

We struggle with sin, but I would tell them that this is not right
according to God's Word. The Bible's clear on this issue. That's
contending for the faith.

But they say, I'm not their judge, I'm not their jury, it's not up to
me. But you're a proclaimer of truth. You're a defender of doctrine.

You're a broadcaster of righteousness. How can you remain silent? And
here's what I've learned. You're either turning toward God or turning
away from Him.

Galatians 1, six through nine, I marvel. We might actually have it up
there, Galatians 1. I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him
who called you in the grace of Jesus Christ to a different gospel, which
is not another, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert
the gospel of Christ. Now, this is important.

You need to learn the scripture. You need to even show people. I believe
the Mormons will even have this in their Bible and other Jehovah
Witnesses might have it in their Bible.

I didn't check this week, I probably should have. But this famous verse,
though we or an angel from heaven preach to you any other gospel than
what we have preached, let him be accursed. Let him be accursed if we
preach any other gospel.

So what is the gospel? The main gospel, most of you know, praise God,
but not everybody knows, the main thrust of the gospel, the gospel means
good news. I was dead in my sin and trespasses. I was under the wrath
and condemnation of God.

That's not very popular. That's not very popular, but it's the truth.
But God rescued me and you and those who believe through the redemptive
work of Christ on the cross.

That's the good news. So you can't add anything to that. I've told you
before when I talked to that priest of a large Catholic church, I said,
why do you promote purgatory? Well, we have to be purged of our sins and
guilt.

No, no, no, no, no, that's the point of the cross. If that's not what
the cross is for, did Jesus go up and do an incomplete work, a partial
work? I almost got it for you guys. Now, if you could just finish it.

See, that's blasphemy. That is heretical, that's a heretical teaching.
Shane, why do you use that word? Heresy just means a self-willed opinion
that opposes the truth.

To say we have to go somewhere and be punished for our shame and guilt
and sin after we've already acknowledged Christ and we are believers is
not correct. It's adding, adding to the gospel. That's another gospel.

That's another truth that is not taught in Scripture. So maybe you need
the gospel this morning. You need the good news.

Have you repented of your sin and believed? Have you repented? It's that
simple. Oh, the simple gospel. We sing that song, the simple gospel.

Next week, I'm gonna talk about the trademarks of a false prophet, but
here's what I wanna, it's kinda gonna be a long ending, so I don't know
when I'll leave. Maybe five, 10 more minutes, or 15. So here's the key.

Is Jesus the central, the main, the chief, the fundamental, the core
focus? That's how you determine something is true or not. Every spirit
that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and
every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come into the
flesh is not of God. It's really that simple.

What do you do with Jesus? See, so here's the definition of a cult. You
hear the word cult, right? A cult is a group of people that deviate from
the essential, essential scriptural truth. They deviate from it.

So that guy, Dave Koresh in Waco, when you're drinking Kool-Aid, right?
Somebody just told me on Facebook, hey, you're drinking Kool-Aid. I
said, I'm drinking the truth. You're drinking Kool-Aid.

Because they, remember the Kool-Aid guy? They poisoned themselves,
Jonestown, and cultish. A lot of other groups are cultish, meaning they
deny, deny the main truth is that Jesus is the only way, the only truth,
the only life, he is the son of God. End of story.

The essentials of the Christian faith. Now, when they deviate from that,
they're called a cult. Often, the irony is, for example, the Roman
Catholic Church, when I talked to that priest, he told me that one of
the problems they have with denominations is you have so many
denominations, but see, we are the one true church, and I want to remind
them that, no, when you look the same, taste the same, smell the same
everywhere you go, that's a reflection of a cult.

A denomination, there's freedom in Christ. There's differences in their
distinction, but they all have the essentials of the Christian faith.
They all agree to the essentials, but if you go somewhere, and it's the
same thing, the same room, the same building, the same setup, that is
control, and that is cult.

That's a cult-like thing. Now, you can go somewhere, Calvary chapels
have Calvary chapel distinctives. The four square, vineyard, reformed
churches, they have certain distinctions within their denomination.

That's different. Denominations, there's a lot of freedom. We just are
non-denominational because we just don't line up with a certain
denomination.

We take the good from all of them. I don't know who we would line up if
we did, but a lot of churches are non-denominational, not because they
think they're special, but just because, for example, Pentecostals
believe that the evidence of the Spirit is speaking in tongues only. I
wouldn't agree with that.

The reformed denomination follows that of the Reformation, the five
points of Tulip, John Calvin. I don't quite subscribe to that. Calvary
chapel, part of their distinctives is you have to believe that, and the
way they believe the rapture, you have to believe that a person can't
possibly walk away from their faith.

Their church form of church government is one person leading, where we
have a plurality of elders. So you have differences, but it's not over
the essentials. And then this group breaks up from this group, but
they're all still focused on the essentials.

Cults often look the same exact way. You go to one in Wisconsin, you go
to one in Las Vegas, you go to one in LA, it's the same type of
structure, same type of control, and a lot of times they want to control
your money. So let's just read this from a website.

Yes, and I'll tell you who it is afterwards. Yes, we believe in Jesus.
We have faith that Jesus came to earth from heaven and gave his perfect
human life as a ransom sacrifice.

We also believe that Jesus is now ruling as king of God's heavenly
kingdom. However, we take Jesus at his word when he said, the Father is
greater than I am, so we do not worship Jesus. Let me circle that one
for the next service.

Make sure I don't forget that. We do not worship Jesus as we do not
believe that he is almighty God. Let me just, jw.org. I pulled it right
from the Jehovah Witness website.

You wanna know what to say when they knock on your door? Just show them
this. But see, here's where they make the mistake. And the ones I've
talked to, they don't have, here's the scary part, why I feel for this
group.

They don't have certainty of salvation. There's no certainty. We don't
know until the end, until we make sure we're good enough and do the
right things.

Can you imagine living like that? And they get confused on one verse.
When Jesus said, the Father is greater than I am, they forgot about the
doctrine of incarnation. The Bible says that Jesus became less than the
angels, taking on the form of a man.

He became obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. So
Jesus humbled himself. It's, again, the doctrine of incarnation.

He humbled himself, took on the form of man, fully God and fully man.
Try to get your hands around that one. But we know it's the truth.

So he lowered himself. He humbled himself. That's why in Philippians,
let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in
the form of God, did not consider robbery to be equal with God, but he
made himself of no reputation.

So as he humbles himself, he can say, the Father is greater than I.
That's, you have that one verse, but you have, I could've read a dozen
verses, but I'm just gonna read you two. John 1, 18. No one has ever
seen God but the one and only Son who is himself God and is the closest
relationship with the Father.

He has made him known. John 10, 33. We are not stoning you for any good
work, they replied, but blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be
God.

And we could keep going over these. The reason is, why would they say
that? Because it's a cult. They also don't like the concept of hell, so
they remove that.

And this is what cracks me up about this topic. What I'm talking to you
about, it's not gonna sit well with some people. Jehovah Witness or
Mormon or even Roman Catholicism, some in that.

All I'm doing is reading what they said, or in the Roman Catholic Church
purgatory, what they teach and what the Bible says. So if you're mad, be
upset at the Bible. No, I'm just reading what each teaches, that's it.

But see, something you always have to remember, when you have the truth
of God's word, it invites scrutiny. It says, come on, I invite your
scrutiny. When you have error, you run from it.

I've asked the church down the street a half dozen times. I've got one
of the elder's text messages, we let them know when a memorial's going
on. When can we sit down and talk about the differences? Unless an act
from Almighty God, that is not going to happen.

Why? Let's see what the Bible says. Let's look at the truth. No, let's
not.

But he suggested we can do a community event together. Well, it's like,
mm-mm. Okay, if we can talk later about the differences.

Or I'll sit down with the guys in the door, hey, let's open the Bible,
let's talk about, oh, no, no, let me go get my elders. Well, no, you're
knocking on my door trying to win me to your faith, but don't go get
your elders. You better know what you know what you know.

Let's talk about these things. I've got family members. Can we sit down
and can I show you? No, no, I don't wanna talk about it.

Why? Because it's a cult, it's demonic. It's not, when you talk about
the Son of God and the truth of God's word, who in the world's gonna
wanna sit down and talk about that because the demons will even flee
with the mention of God's truth. They don't wanna hear God's truth and
he's gonna show them the light.

That's impossible. I remember I was at a Mormon bishop's house many
years ago. Now, we first started the church and after an hour of giving
us a spill, I finally read this scripture.

Though an angel from heaven preaches any other gospel, let him be
accursed. This is another gospel. Are you telling me he got up? Are you
telling me this Book of Mormon, is that the devil? I think so.

And that was out. That was get your, let's go, out of my house. Out of
my house.

Why are you so mad? Why are you so mad? If you have the truth, share it
with me for the love of God. If you have the truth, share it with me. If
I'm dying, if I'm on my way to hell, share the truth with me.

Why can't you share the truth with me? Let me tell you, let me show you
my truth. Let's have a dialogue. No, because the word of God supersedes
all other, there's no other truth.

So it is above everything. The name of Christ is above every other name.
So when you go in with the word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit
and the name of Christ, you already have authority and dominion.

That in and of itself is the strength you need. And that's all you need.
But you ain't gonna listen.

They're getting upset. Who cares? It's the truth. Remember that truth
invites scrutiny.

I'll sit down with any group, any group, and share what the Bible says.
There's a local atheist group. I've told them three or four times.

Hey, I'd love to come to your group. I might bring some bodyguards, but
I'd love to come to your group. Let's sit down, let's talk about, I'm so
deceived and I'm naive and I'm stupid.

I'm an idiot for believing there's a God. Let's talk about it. Let's
talk about it.

Nobody jumps the opportunity. Why, because you're coming with Almighty
God. They have nothing but a lying deception.

Mormons believe that all men and women ever to be born, including Jesus
Christ, lived with God as his spirit children. See right there. That's
not correct.

That's so out there. Do you know, I mean, maybe it's just me, but the
Bible's clear, and then you have this teaching that says, you'll be like
God someday. You will be married to your spirit wife and have celestial
sex and have spirit children and rule planets.

I'm gonna end on that. Am I in the twilight zone? I mean, again, I'm not
trying to mock, because I know some of you say, oh, you're mocking. No,
I'm not.

I'm telling you what this believes, and it's blasphemous. You believe
this, you're on the highway to hell. That's not an ACDC song.

That's a reality. My Lord, this is serious stuff. They believe that God
was once like us, I told you this, and lived on earth.

He was resurrected, glorified, and grew into his deified state,
according to Joseph Smith. And I could read more and more and more. For
example, they believe you'll be married in heaven.

That's why there's marriage ceremonies are sealed in the temple,
secretive, and just whisper, Jesus said there's no marriage in heaven.
You'll be like the angels. So who's right? Joseph Smith or Jesus Christ?
Joseph Smith says he found some tablets, but we don't know where they're
at anymore, and guess what? And some special glasses to read the
tablets.

And this angel told him that all churches for the last 1,850 years have
been wrong, and God's going to give him the restored gospel. So that
means Spurgeon, D.L. Moody, Ignatius, Polycarp, Arrhenius, the church
fathers, all the early beliefs and teachings were all wrong, but now
this man has got the revealed truth by special spectacles and tablets.
But nobody will let me tell them that because they don't wanna talk
about it.

And they've been warned, oh, no, no, no, no. Christians are brainwashed.
They're gonna try to tell you things.

Just don't go there with them. But folks, we have to pray that spiritual
blindness is taken away. We have to pray that.

Let's pray that after the service because God has to take away that
spiritual blindness. You're going to, they say, well, we believe in the
Bible as much as it's interpreted correctly or transcribed, you know,
edited correctly. We believe it, but we put these other books above it.

So you have a Bible where you can go find where Jesus walked. You can go
confirm it in Roman historian, Jewish historian, Josephus, and their
historians. It's in Britannica.

What's that big encyclopedia, Britannica? It's all documents, all there.
The kings, the kingdom, the coins, the tools, everything is there. But
when you get to the Book of Mormon, nothing can be found, nothing.

So you're building your life on, you're changing, drifting from God
because some guy found tablets. An angel spoke to him. If we are an
angel from above speaks to you, any other gospel, let him be accursed.

Watch out for Satan because he comes as a angel of light. How many false
religions started because somebody spoke to them? An angel spoke to
them. Here's what happens.

We drift from God when we are not anchored. We drift when the force
pulling us away is greater than the desire pulling us back to God. So if
you're drifting, that's probably what is happening.

Something is pulling you away from God, and that pull is stronger than
your desire to return. That's what drifting is, drifting from the truth.
So this church was drifting from the truth, and Jude said, no, come
back, contend for the faith.

Contend. And we drift when we have lost our motivation and our desire to
serve God. So I wanna leave you with this thought this morning.

Return to your first love if you know Christ and you've drifted, just
return to your first love. If you don't know him, repent and believe.
Repent, saying, I see sin as God sees it, and I'm repenting, I'm turning
from that.

There was such a good testimony that came in. I have to share this with
you. It's on our Facebook page.

I might share it in the bulletin too. There's a lady by the name of Liz.
She actually transcribes every word I'm saying right now into sermon
notes.

So if you ever want those, they are available, I believe, under our
audio section, and she really cleans them up. Praise God, because I'm
glad she doesn't put every word. And she was working on one idea a while
back on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and I didn't know where she was
gonna stand on that, but obviously, I find out we're on the same page,
but I said, so tell me your story.

And she said, listen, I want you to listen. Staff, ushers, media, sound,
children ministry, who's ever listening, listen to this, because I
believe this is for many of you in this room. Staff, members, all of us.

My Christianity went from a dead fish hypocrite to an on fire, loving
the word, loving prayer, loving people, person. I was saved in 1997, and
I looked like your typical Christian homeschooling mom, active at
church, but we never opened the Bible until church on Sunday. I taught
with Christian materials, but we never had family devotions, and worst
of all, I did not have a love for people.

That's the key, that's the key. If you do not have a love for people,
and she went on to say, I yelled at my kids a lot, anger was a mark of
her, but in the spring of 2011, I was looking over our new curriculum
for the kids called My Father's World, some of you know what that is,
which contained a set of missionary biographies, which I started to
read. I read one book after another and thought to myself, these people
are willing to die for Christ? Why am I not like that? What do they have
that I don't have? At the same time that was happening, the Holy Spirit
was convicting me about my anger and yelling at my kids.

I was doubting my faith, living a double life. It seemed that Jesus
wasn't even real. Maybe all this was just made up.

Maybe I got suckered into believing this. One day, my husband had to go
out of town. I put the kids to bed and then had this talk with God.

I was crying and thinking about all of these things, and specifically
remember asking myself, am I even a Christian? I sort of had it out with
God that night, and that's a good thing. I would encourage you to do
that, because he will win. But nothing extraordinary happened.

I fell asleep, except that the next day I was totally a different
person. Yelling stopped almost immediately. I was so full of love for
people and so hungry for the word of God and for prayer.

We started prayer meeting in our home. Born again became a literal thing
to me, not just a Christian term. I knew what it meant.

Other things began to change. My choices of movies and television, the
shows I watched, I wouldn't just push the envelope anymore. I didn't
want to watch the things of the world.

I was interested in what God wanted. For a long time, I'm ending here, I
thought that I was saved at that time. For a long time, I thought that I
was saved at that time, and not years earlier, because people told me
there's no such thing as the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Call it what you want, but I know that in 1997, I felt a real physical
burden being lifted when I believed. But then something different
happened eight years later. I've been telling you guys this for eight
years.

I believe you have all of the Holy Spirit at conversion, but does he
have all of you? No, in the case of many people, he doesn't. That's why
God is distant. That's why you hear me talk about these missionaries are
dying for Christ, it's the last thing you want to do.

And I'm just telling you this because I love you. I love you enough to
tell you the truth that many people are not filled with the Holy Spirit.
The very thing they need is the very thing they're running from.

What she experienced is a fully surrendered life. She got to the end of
herself. See, she was following all the rules.

You catch a homeschooling mom, the Bible, Christian, but that's not
enough, that's not enough. The heart has to break. So maybe this would
be a good opportunity this morning during worship is to say like what
she said, wrestle out with God and say, God, I'm surrendering my life to
you, I'm surrendering everything to you.

Joel 2.13, he said, rend your hearts, rend your hearts and not your
garments. Now return to the Lord your God for he is gracious and
compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love. Jeremiah, go and
proclaim these words to the north.

Jeremiah's proclaiming, he's in Judah, he's south in Judah, he's
proclaiming these words to the north, possibly even Israel. What's the
words, Jeremiah? Return, return, faithless Israel and declares the Lord
and I will not look upon you in anger for I am gracious, thus saith the
Lord. There's always this call that goes out, return to God with prayer
and brokenness and humility, fully surrendering your life.

What type of Christian only gives God a portion? That type of Christian
is miserable, miserable when we don't give God everything. And of course
it comes up when I talk about this, well, I can never do that, that's
impossible to be perfect. You're right, I haven't given God everything,
I'll freely admit that to you.

The sin is there, the flesh is there, it fights every step of the way,
but what you do is you say, God, I'm giving you everything this morning.
My finances, my addictions, my friends, my time with you, I don't know
you like I should, worship's boring, I can't wait to get out of here,
I'm hungry. I want this Christianity that you talk, that Shane talked, I
want it, I want it, what's wrong with me? God says, that's all I need,
that's all I need, a humble, broken person to admit it.

Because most of us don't do that, we do this. I've been a Christian 30
years. I'm through that Bible once a year.

My grandpapa was a pastor. My whole family, I'm a Christian. No, but
does God have your heart? That's a good test, do you truly love people?
Do you truly love people, or are you pretty ticked off of people?
Critical spirit, angry, don't wanna deal with people, or do you truly
love them? Because when you fully surrender your life, God will give you
that love.

And then you will contend for the faith because it comes out of you.
What comes out of you is what's already inside of you. So this whole
message on contending for the faith, if you're just gonna try to wing
it, yeah, that sounds good, let me try that out, it's not gonna work.

Because whatever is inside comes out, for out of the abundance of the
heart, the mouth speaks. So get right with God, fully surrender your
life, and watch what God does. I'm sure I can, many people are gonna
say, but Shane, you talk about this a lot, how long are you gonna do
that? When everybody fully surrenders their life, in this church, I will
stop.

I will stop. When I see, is that a deal? When I come in here and go, my
Lord, this church is broken, they're humbled before God, they don't
wanna leave, the services are flowing into the next, this altar's full,
people are crying out to God, God's delivering, he's setting free,
people are broken and worshiping God, they can't get enough of God, I
better switch my subject matter now. But until we get there, we are
going to contend for this truth because I believe God can show us, piece
by piece, areas that are lacking, that God wants everything, and you can
experience what Liz experienced.

That, what I just read, is the abundant, victorious Christian life.
That's what it is, the spirit-filled life, is this abundant life.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/xob4EgRGlAs.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/shane-idleman/a-call-to-defend-a-study-through-the-epistle-of-jude/
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