Urgent Breaking News!!!

Imagine something like this happening at Church... The meeting has started out as normal, a theme verse, a brief introduction... You're half way through 'My Jesus, My Savior' when you see one of the elders sneak up to the front and slip a note to the Pastor. As he reads it, a very sobering look comes over him. "Wait!" he says, cutting you mid-way through the chorus... "Stop singing... I just received a very urgent announcement. Take your seats for a moment."

What could the news be? What is so important that the Pastor has stopped you praising God. Why has he cut rough-shod across the meeting!?

We're all familiar with the idea of 'breaking news'. Breaking news can be good news or bad news. Sometimes breaking news means putting good news on hold as we face urgent bad news.

What news is so bad that it would mean putting praising God on hold? What news is so bad that it would put the good news of the Gospel on hold?

We might think, "nothing" but Jude disagrees:

Jude: 3-4 "Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ."

Stop praising for a moment and start contending!

Jude was going to write a letter about the Gospel, about 'our common salvation'. He was likely going to exalt God for his goodness and mercy in sending Christ for us. And yet, he found it necessary to change course. He'd loved to have done this... but he couldn't! Something was so pressing that it needed addressing. He wanted to rejoice in the Gospel, but now was a time to CONTEND for the Gospel and to exhort his readers to do the same. WHY? Because the Gospel was at risk! Certain people, Jude says, had crept in unnoticed at were perverting the Gospel.

Think of how this letter may have been received by its original readers. It would likely have been read in a regular Church gathering. Everyone would have turned up as usual and be mingling over coffee. Imagine how the jovial mood would have changed when the pastor read these words, "For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ."

No doubt, heads would turn as people tried to work out who Jude was writing about.

Many would be annoyed. "We came to Church to worship God! Can't you just leave the politics to the elders!" Such people expose the fact that they have very different priorities to God!

We live in a day and age where many Christians believe we ought to ignore doctrinal differences and simply praise God together. "Doctrine divides and Christ unites" it is said. We all believe in Jesus so can't we just get along and brush our differences under the carpet. We can praise God together, at least, can't we! There is something to be said for this, as many of our squabbles could well be about things God cares very little about!

When contending comes FIRST

BUT what if the issues at stake DO matter!? Is there a time when we have to dispense with the niceties of 'all being right' and all 'believing in Jesus' and 'praising Jesus together' to point out that what some of us believe about Jesus is WRONG... tragically wrong and dangerously wrong! Jude gives a resounding, "yes!"

Not only is there a time for this... but when that time arrises it should be give greater priority than our 'worship', greater priority even then our reveling in the Gospel. Jude would loved to have praised God for his salvation... but in the order of things, this came first!

Desperate times call for desperate measures. When the truth of the Gospel is at risk, contending for it comes first, everything else comes second! Not only is it right to contend for the truth and to point our falsehood, it is important... more important than you enjoying church!

Although it is very unpopular to speak against false teaching and far more popular to simply proclaim the truth... Jude screams to us... CONTEND! The job of the man of God isn't simply to teach but to correct and rebuke! How will Jude correct us? Keep reading to find out!