Saturday, March 12, 2011

Giving All Diligence to Earnestly Contend for the Faith

"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." Jude 3

Jude "gave all diligence" to record God's Word for all New Testament believers. He did this under the direct inspiration of God the Holy Spirit. Beloved, make no mistake; the LORD had you in mind when He inspired His servant Jude.

God's active and protective love in us will propel us to train others to discern and be guarded from the mischief intended upon them by the evil one and his emissaries in our midst (Ezekiel 44:23; 1 Tim. 4:1, 6).

"And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses." Nehemiah 4:14

The war for the souls of the saints involves the brethren. To contend earnestly for the faith is directly connected to loving God and loving our neighbor for whom Christ died. Lies and lack of knowledge are causing many to perish.

"Fight for your brethren" – A godly brother can be used to cut off occasion to Satan and his emissaries – to intervene. The intervention of a loving brother, who brings divine truth forward and into the ears and heart of another who is being enticed by the enemy, can be soul-saving. See James 5:19-20.

Contending for the faith begins in the arena of one's own heart and mind. Bringing one's mind under subjection to the Spirit and Word are prerequisites for being used to defend the faith and help others to abide safe in the harbor of the truth (2 Cor. 10:3-6). The soldier of the cross must first "contend for the faith" of the Gospel, as revealed in the Scriptures, internally before he can do such externally. God's Word is "settled in heaven," but is it "settled" or established in your heart as final authority? Do all of your current beliefs emanate from the Word? (Study Psalm 119)

Our minds must be washed by the water of His holy Word, cleansing away every trace and all residue of unbiblical doctrine and thinking. The heart of the Christian worker must be infused with the constitution of His LORD, found in the Bible. He must make the quality decision to relinquish all previous religious thinking and notions and repent of all false images of the LORD, which are built out of unbiblical teaching.

Our Heavenly Father gave us His Word in order to "exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints."

Believers must earnestly contend for the truth. When taking a closer look at the New Testament canon of Holy Scripture, one will discover that the LORD and His apostles were engaged in a continual battle to preserve truth and eliminate error, namely in the minds of God's people. Christians are called to stand side by side, aligned cohesively with our LORD and His Word, and defend His holy truth against all attackers who would cause others to err from the faith – embracing the image of a false god through wrong information (1 Tim. 1:6; 5:15).

"…that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel." Philippians 1:27

"Earnestly contend(ing) for the faith," as embodied in the written Word, is all-important to the preservation of divine truth in the hearts of men. God's Word is under severe attack by the evil one. As it has been in all of history, so today, men of God must do their part by speaking out against all enemies of the LORD, which have come to alter His eternal Word and malign His holy image. We must stand with Christ and not men. Our allegiance is to Him who bares the nail-scarred hands and feet. As laborers together with the LORD (1 Cor. 3:9), we must do all in our power to preserve God's written Word in its original form and in the hearts and minds of those around us.

"The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever." Psalm 12:6-7

Because (as promised repeatedly) there are so many antichrist deceivers in this last hour, the deluge of deception is at an all-time high. End-time predators fill the pulpits and bookshelves of our "Christian" venues. Beware and sound the alarm!
Multi-billion dollar "Christian" television empires beam out a plethora of poison peddlers who are parading their wares and wiles to millions who participate and pay for such toxin. New books break on the modern church scene daily with little or no Scripture from authors who are obviously attempting to make a name for themselves, instead of making the LORD's name famous. New "Bible" versions arrive monthly having utterly changed the eternal Word of God into something He never inspired. In all of these instances, wicked men are taking His holy name in vain by attaching it to something He has nothing to do with. In light of these and many other vehicles of deception, never has the church world more needed to diligently study and rightly divide the Word of truth than it does today (2 Tim. 2:15).
God said that His people are the dispensers of His truth:

"…in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." 1 Timothy 3:15

His people are His Church – His called-out ones – which are the pillar and ground (stewards and dispensers) of His truth.

Excerpt from the book Deceivers & False Prophets Among Us.
Available at http://safeguardyoursoul.com/
todd tomasella