“Contending for the Truth”
J.W. Sims
Jude 1:3
“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.”
If this exhortation was needed when James wrote it how much more is it needed today. We must earnestly contend for the faith, meaning we should struggle for the faith in order to keep it solid, foundational, right and pure. It is sad to say that we live in a day when the church has been infiltrated by falseness, by those who have brought to us a more acceptable message, but a message that is not truth.
John MacArthur has written a book entitled The Truth War, which would be worthy of everyone’s time.
Many in our day and age contend that there is no real truth, or that truth can change, thus they tell our children to live as they feel comfortable in living and they justify cutting and chipping away at our constitution since it nor the Word of God give real truth as far as they are concerned.
Isaiah 5:20 gives to us what I believe is foundational concerning what has taken place in America.
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter”
Yes, there is our problem in a nutshell, for we have allowed the enemy to twist everything in our lives and in our world. Good has become evil, evil has become good, light has become darkness and darkness has become light, and sweet has become bitter, and bitter has become sweet. Today, in our country the victim is the guilty party and the guilty party is the victim.
Romans 1:25 expresses what we have done in America in that we have changed or exchanged the truth of God for a lie and served the creature more than the creator.
We have given up on the truth, we have turned from the truth and accepted a lie, and we have accepted the falseness of the enemy instead of the truth of God.
2 Timothy 4:4 “And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”
Yes, this is how we have gotten ourselves into this position, we have turned our ears from the truth, we no longer want to hear the truth, and we want to hear the false fables and stories.
2 Timothy 3:7 “Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” If ever there was a verse that displays our educational system it is this. If ever there were a verse that displays the modern day church it is this: education and developing your mind is far more important than coming to and giving the truth. We are ever learning but never able to come to the truth, for we use our minds, and we reject the truth.
2 Thess. 2:10 speaks of those who are being deceived because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. The passage contends that because of this God will send them delusion so that they will believe a lie. This is, I believe why America is where it is in regard to basic light, we are deceived and we will easily be ready to accept the lie of the antichrist.
We must ask what is truth? Though the world may not know the answer to this, every believer does know the answer:
John 17:17 The Word of God is truth.
John 16:13 The Spirit is truth.
John 14:6 Christ is truth.
Truth is essential for without truth there is no light, it is truth that brings us to the light, it is truth brought about by the Word, by the Spirit and by Christ that brings us to salvation.
As I Timothy 2:4 reads: “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
John 8:44 “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.”
Satan has rejected the truth of the gospel, for he has rejected Christ. He will not abide or stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.
People all over the world are in need, they are in need of salvation but they are also in need of freedom. Bondage is a terrible thing and most of us do not understand just how terrible it is for we have never experienced it. But in John 8:32 we learn that it is the truth that brings us to freedom – only those who know truth – only those who have come to Christ are those who truly know freedom