Jude 1:3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write to you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write to you… Among the testimonies which the sons of genius, in their deep disappointment and bitter want, have given to the solitary superiority of the Christian faith, I know none more impressive than that of Sir Humphrey Davy. His brilliant genius, his practical inventiveness, his great talents, his discovery of four metals, his fortunate surroundings and his pre-eminent distinction conspire to make the entry in his later diary very mournful — namely, the two words "very miserable," and to give profound emphasis to his estimate of the Christian faith. He says, "I envy no quality of mind or intellect in others — not genius, power, wit, or fancy; but if I could choose what would be most delightful, and I believe most useful to me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to every other blessing; for it makes life a discipline of goodness, creates new hopes when all earthly hopes vanish, and throws over the decay, the destruction of existence, the most gorgeous of all lights; calling in the most delightful visions where the sensualist and the sceptic view only gloom, decay, and annihilation." I. Our first endeavour must be to ASCERTAIN AND VERIFY "THE FAITH ONCE FOR ALL DELIVERED TO THE SAINTS." 1. The treasure. What is it? "The faith," that is the phrase. It is a record of certain specific facts about the Lord Jesus Christ — if you please, a creed. To be sure there are creeds and creeds. Men have built around the great citadel of revelation certain out-works of theology which may be mere rubbish and worse than rubbish; and it is well for the citadel itself that the enemies of Christianity should destroy these. 2. The casket, what is it? It is that which contains the treasure. 3. The custodian is the church, the everlasting succession of Christ's true, living, human witnesses, who first received this truth from God. The truth was delivered, not invented by man, not reasoned out by man's intellect; delivered, handed by God to man; delivered once for all. II. It remains to state and unfold THE DUTY OF CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH once for all delivered to the saints. 1. It is sure to be contended against. Christ is the "Prince of Peace," but He is also a "man of war." He "came not to bring peace on earth but a sword." Christ's own track to His throne lay through thorns and blood. The truth is sure to be contended against. Heretics were Divinely predicted; therefore they are credentials of the faith. 2. It is worth contending for. It destroyed the old polytheistic civilisation. It changed the face of the world. It brought in a new and better era for the race of man. It emancipated the mind. Look back eighteen hundred years to what the world was. Gibbon writes of "a sinking world." I use his phrase. There was no promise of a noble future for the race. The home, as we conceive it, was not. The marriage tie had no sacredness. Man as man had no rights, and the individual was sunk in the state. Power, power was the one idea of ancient Rome. A modern French painter has caught the idea and represented it with wonderful fidelity. I mean Gerome; whose canvas shows us the Coliseum with its eighty thousand spectators hungering for the sighs of cruelty. The gladiatorial combat has proceeded, until the wretched victim has fallen at the feet of his more brawny or fortunate conqueror. He is weak, let him die. So said the vestal virgins, and so said ancient Rome. It was not far from that very time that plain, homely man wrote a letter to some people in Rome and said, "I am ready so much as in me lies to preach the gospel to you which are at Rome also; for it is power." Here is power against power. It is the power of God against the power of man. It is "the power of God unto salvation" as against man's power of destruction. 3. It is worth our while to contend for it. God's great way of making His truth mighty is by putting that truth into living men. His way of getting for His truth currency in the world is by putting it into the mouths and lives of men with hot hearts, making their hot hearts hotter by means of it, and so thrusting it before the unbelieving multitude. It is wonderful how any truth once lodged in a human soul will enlarge and ennoble that soul. Many a scientific thought without any moral aspect has lifted up a man into nobler thinking, and more earnest working, and a higher grade of living. Thoughts essentially moral and religious have still higher developing power. (C. D. Foss, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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