While the book of Revelation is often neglected or written off as hard to understand the reality is that it is a book of incredible hope. Yes, there are parts of Revelation that raise questions, but the big idea is clear: God is in control and through Jesus God will save His people. God will defeat all of His enemies and Jesus will reign forever as the King of kings and Lord of lords. The book of Revelation is a book of great hope and it is a Jesus-centric book. Throughout the book we see the exaltation of Jesus and we are pointed toward His return, His final victory and His eternal reign. And with the persisting emphasis on Jesus it makes sense that John would include in the introduction a hymn of praise (a doxology) to Jesus.

There’s a story recorded in Mark 9 of a father who went to Jesus in desperation because his son was possessed by an evil spirit. He went to Jesus asking for a miracle, but in his request Jesus noticed a lack of faith and admonished him. The man’s response to Jesus’s admonition is a plea that many of us can probably relate to; he said, I believe, help my unbelief! The reality is that as Christians we are often tempted to have areas in our lives where we allow doubt or a lack of faith to creep in. While we’ve trusted in God’s promise of salvation we may doubt that He can really help us overcome a particular temptation; or whether He can really give us what we need to endure a significant struggle. But a theme that runs throughout the book of Romans is that God has the power to strengthen or establish His people. And in the final verses of the letter, in his doxology, Paul praises God for the Gospel and for the power He has to strengthen His people.

Every Christian has a different story of how they came to faith. For some, faith came early and before there was a chance to see their sin nature and rebellion exposed in any shocking ways. For others conversion was more outwardly dramatic and led to a very definite change of lifestyle. But as we consider what the Bible says about the nature of our hearts and our need for salvation, the fact that any of us are Christians today is truly amazing. It is a testament to the matchless grace and mercy of God and His plan of salvation that is beyond our ability to fully comprehend or understand. As we come to the doxology of Romans 11 Paul is concluding a long and detailed survey of God’s plan of salvation and as he brings this incredible treatise to an end he breaks into this doxology extoling the God of salvation.

A doxology is a short hymn of praise that exalts God and gives Him glory. Or, it could be said this way: A doxology describes the character of God and ascribes glory to Him for who He is and what He has done. These short hymns of praise can be found throughout the Scriptures, but they are especially prevalent in the Psalms and in the Epistles. As we enter November and head toward Thanksgiving we are going to spend four weeks considering four different doxologies. During this month that is often set aside for giving thanks, we are going to take some time to consider the character of God and how worthy He is of all our thanks and all our praise. He is truly the One to whom all glory is due.

Jude’s letter to the church is a letter of warning and exhortation. It’s a warning about the threats the church is facing and it is an exhortation for the church to contend for the faith. Jude is clear about the seriousness of the situation both for the false teachers and for those would follow after them. While Jude’s letter is primarily focused on the responsibility of the church to be on guard and to stand firm, Jude both starts and ends his letter with the declaration of this foundational truth: God will keep those who are His from falling away. While we are often called to strive for holiness and make our call and election sure, Jude makes this so clear, God will not lose any who are His.

The letter of Jude is a letter of warning and of exhortation. The warning is that there are those within the church who are opposed to the truth. Jude spends much of the letter describing those who are threatening the church with their misuse and distortion of the Gospel. But Jude’s primary reason for writing is to exhort the church to stand strong and to contend for the faith. After spending a good deal of time considering the opponents, in verses 17-23 Jude begins to give some attention to what it looks like to ‘contend for the faith.’ In verse 17-21 we saw that we are to remember the warnings that have been given regarding false teachers and then to keep watch on our own hearts; or to use Jude’s words, we are to remain in the love of God. In vv. 22-23 we come to a third aspect of what it looks like contend for the faith. Jude issues this exhortation: Rescue those who are wandering and lost.

As we have worked through the Letter of Jude we have considered the call to contend for the faith and the nature of the threat against the church. Jude spent a considerable amount of time in this short letter describing those who oppose the truth and their ways of life. While the charge has been given and the opposition has been defined, the question remains: What does it look like to contend for the faith? And what does it look like for us to be a church who takes this call to contend seriously? In vv. 17-23 Jude provides a call to action. In this section he describes what the church must do in order to defend the faith that we have been entrusted with.

As Christians we identify as followers. We call ourselves disciples. We are very open about this reality: we are a people under authority. We agree with Paul and declare that we are not our own, we were bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:19-20), we live as those who are the Lord’s (Romans 14:7-8) and we have been crucified, we no longer live but Christ lives in us (Galatians 2:20). As the people of God we believe and proclaim that all authority belongs to God and that we must live in full submission to His will, but we are also very aware of the temptation to exert our own will. It is our nature to want to live by our own thoughts, ideas and desires. We are constantly tempted to find other authorities and to elevate them to the place where God belongs. And along the same lines we must always be aware of others who are seeking to usurp God’s authority. This is exactly the situation that Jude is writing to warn Christians about. He is writing to encourage and exhort the church to be aware of those who (in subtle ways) reject God’s authority and live by their own values and desires.

As Jude writes this letter to Christians his main purpose is this: to encourage them to ‘contend for the faith.’ He’s writing to warn them that the truth is being opposed and that those who believe must guard the faith that has been handed down and entrusted to them. As we consider the most dangerous and pressing threats to our faith we may be quick to think of the open and blatant opposition from those outside the church; those who clearly desire to silence Christians. But as Jude writes he is warning against a much more subtle threat: a threat from the inside. In this part of the letter it becomes apparent that Jude is concerned about those who outwardly profess faith but who don’t truly hold to the Gospel. Their ways of life are inconsistent with the ways of Jesus and they are distorting and misusing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. These ‘internal threats’ that Jude is warning against are dangerous and we see these same kind of threats today. More and more we see how churches name the name of Christ but allow sin and ways of life that are inconsistent with the Gospel to remain. It’s with these kinds of threats in view that we must ‘contend for the Gospel.’