Introduction: Many people are busy trying to change the unchanging Faith. It's happening all around the world, it's happening right here in Chattanooga. For example, this "labyrinth" that a church has built (Chattanooga Times/ Free Press Jan. 1, 2000). They have built it on a soccer field behind their church. They say that walking the two mile course around the labyrinth is a way to pray and meditate. They say they have been in use for prayer and meditation for 4000 years. They say the labyrinth is for "the transformation of the psyche....a time of emptying...a time of illumination...a time of union...It's a form of body prayer...simply let yourself be there...you don't have to read or write or believe the same way in order to walk it...It's a way to connect with all humankind...There is something mystical about it...The power is very strong...We have regular centering prayer...there are a thousand ways to pray...This is a dedicated offering...We are spiritual beings on a human path, not human beings on a spiritual path." What did Jesus say when the disciples said, "Teach us to pray?" Did He say to go build a labyrinth? He gave us what we call "The Lord's Prayer."

The newspaper also listed the 25 most influential religous figures of the 20th century, and at the top of the list was theologian Karl Barth of Switzerland. Switzerland is a great place for chocolate, but no longer for theology. Calvin taught great theology. Barth invented the theology that now sways the churches, called Neo-orthodoxy. He taught that the Bible is NOT the word of God, but that it becomes the word of God to you as the Holy Spirit makes it mean something to your heart. He taught that there is no objective truth. What is true for you may not be true for me. According to Barth, the Bible is not the truth of God.

This is the theological position that now holds sway over nearly all denominations and seminaries in the Christian world. We end up allowing that people can believe anything, because it feels good to them, and who are we to say that the Holy Spirit is not speaking to their heart? Thus truth becomes a mere subjective feeling, and all truth is of equal value. And when every subjective feeling becomes the truth, then in reality there is no truth. That's where we find ourselves at the beginning of the 21st century.

Jude illustrates for us that our situation is not a new one. There were false teachers in the early first century Church, too, and Jude tells us what we must do the resist false teaching, and to hang on to the Faith. There are four key words:

I. Humility
A. Jude was the half-brother of Christ, who had several brothers and sisters. Mary was not a perpetual virgin as the Catholics insist (Matthew 13:54-56).
B. Yet Jude never claims to be anybody special, just a "slave of Jesus Christ."
C. Those who refuse to accept the authority of the Bible have a humility problem.
We must humble our hearts, and submit to the written Word of God.

II. Knowledge
A. Jude, just in passing, mentions some deep doctrinal subjects, and apparently
just assumes that his readers know what he means:
1. The calling of the Holy Spirit
2. Sanctification
3. Preservation
B. Many Christians mock doctrine, or feel that doctrine is divisive in the Church.
The opposite is true. Our unity must come from a common understanding of
the Word of God, in other words, doctrine.
C. The Bible tells us to seek doctrinal knowledge, to be true students of the Bible,
and not just readers, dipping our toes into the stream of living water.
(2 Timothy 2:15; and remember the Bereans: Acts 17:11)

III. Spirituality
A. Jude gives his readers a benediction of "mercy, peace and love."
B. These all come from God, and cannot be realized unless we walk with God.
We need to experience His mercy, His peace and His love in our lives.
C. We cannot oppose the false teachers in a merely technical, intellectual way,
but we must be in spiritual harmony with our Heavenly Father. We cannot
fight these battles in our own strength.

IV. Realism
A. We must not go through this world wearing rose tinted glasses, unaware of the
struggle going on, just enjoying salvation, pretending that all is A-OK.
B. Jude wanted to write a general letter on the basics of salvation, but the contem-
porary situation forced him to write a different kind of epistle.
C. Martin Luther said: (read his quote about not missing the battle)
D. Jude exhorts Christians to "earnestly contend for the Faith once for all delivered."
1. To earnestly contend--all one word in Greek, epagonizomai. It means
"intensive combat," and we get our English word "agony" from it. Jude
is not describing a wrestle on the floor with your kids, but rather deadly
serious military combat.
2. For the Faith once delivered. The Christian Faith is not something that
evolves and changes from age to age, despite what our modern
seminaries and religious leaders want.
E. Jude describes the False teachers as spies, as infiltrators into the Church, and
says they have two characteristics:
1. They have bad morals, and (why are the denominations having such a
problem with the question or ordaining gays to the ministry?)
2. They deny the doctrines about Jesus Christ (why do we hear so many
ministers teaching that Jesus is not the only way to Heaven?)
Jude certainly knew what he was writing about!

Conclusion: In our time the Faith is under attack from inside, and from outside, by atheism, evolution, materialism and greed, secularism and licentiousness, relativists and so on and so on. We must not hide our heads in the sand. We must not do nothing, and hope it will just go away. We must "earnestly contend for the Faith once delivered to the saints." May God help us to be faithful to our Savior. Amen