Contend Earnestly for the Faith

Proposition:  What caused Cain to quit contending for the faith?

Cain and Abel were brothers who had the same instruction on worship.  Abel brought the firstling of his flock to the Lord, but Cain brought the fruit of the ground.  God didn’t accept Cain’s offering.  Cain became angry and his countenance fell.  The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry?  And why has your countenance fallen?  If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?  And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door and you must master it.  Cain told his brother what the Lord said, and when they were in the field he killed him.  What caused Cain to quit contending for the faith?

I. Sin

II. He didn’t love God and he didn’t love his brother.

III. Division with his brother and God

Contend – to fight or struggle with; to strive for; to dispute to assert strongly

I. Sin (What are some sins that keep people from contending for the faith?)

A. Adultery and immorality

1. Jeremiah 2:23-25, some women are like a donkey in heat.  They are always looking for a man to go to bed with.  They chase him down and bring him home.  You can’t stop her she is full of passion and wants her desires fulfilled.

2. Jeremiah 5:7-8, Jeremiah says these men line up like troops at harlots’ houses waiting their turn.  They are always checking out their neighbor’s wife and trying to convince her he is the one she wants.

3. These were supposed to be God’s chosen people and they were acting like a bunch of animals trying to breed with as many partners as they can.  It makes me sad to see a mother with several children and each of them with a different father. People are not to act like cats and dogs that breed with multiple partners.  We are to have one married of the partner for life.

4. Immorality can cause people to quit contending for the faith.

5. Matthew 5:27 and 28, if we control our mind we will be able to control the rest of our body.  Job controlled his mind we can control ours, Job 31:1 and 9-12. God said Job was an upright man fearing the Lord and turning away from evil.

B. Drunkenness

1. Galatians 5:19-21, drunkenness and carousing – a drinking, a drinking bout, will keep you from inheriting the kingdom of God.

2. I Peter 4:3 drinking parties are sin.  Social drinking is sin.  If you just want to have a beer with your friends or relatives you are sinning.  Don’t be with people who are drinking and getting drunk.  Don’t go to the bar and play pool.  You are with people who will corrupt your morals I Corinthians 15:33. 

3. Social drinking is sin

a.  I Corinthians 8:1-13

b.  The meat sacrificed to idols is evil because of its connotation.  It was used for an evil purpose.  On a molecular level it was no different than any other meat, but it had a bad purpose.  Alcohol is evil on a molecular level and also it has a bad connotation. 

c.  People hide it.  Sometimes when I am out calling door to door people will have a beer in their hand.  When they find out who I am they try to hide their beer.  I didn’t tell them that drinking beer was sin they know it already. 

d.  A few years ago a lady from Panama brought a cake to English class.  It had real whip cream on top and strawberries and other fruit in it.  It also was very moist like someone had poured some kind of liquid in it.  I told her the cake was really good.  I asked her what was in it.  She was real hesitant to tell me.  I asked her if it was 3 milk cake (tres leche) she said no.  Later very quietly so no one else would hear she said, “We call it El Presidente.  It has rum in it, but just a little bit.”  They make the cake and then pour rum over the top of it.  Why was she so hesitant to tell me what was in it?  Alcohol has a bad connotation.

e.  When you drink alcohol you wound your brother’s conscience and sin against Christ.

4. Proverbs 23:29-35, Solomon says don’t even look at it.

5. Alcohol has done no one any good.  It can kill you quickly or it can kill you slowly.

C. Lack of purity

1. Psalms 24:3 and 4

2. We need to be pure in all our life.  What we watch, listen to, think about, and what we say.  Have pure speech.

3. Titus 2:6-8, have clean speech that cannot be condemned.  Pretend your mother was standing there listening to what you say.  My mother would not let us make jokes about letting gas or other things of that nature.  If you did you were in trouble.  Having jokes with double meanings.  Saying things that are just on the edge of bad, but they certainly are not good.

II. No love for God or you brother.

A. God

1. Matthew 22:37-40

2. Love for God should be number one in our life.

3. Jude 4 they deny our master and Lord Jesus Christ.

4. Matthew 6:33, the kingdom is first.

5. Jesus died for us shouldn’t we have a love for him?

B. Brother

1. Jude 4, The false teachers who crept in didn’t love God or their brothers.  If they love their brothers and God they would contend for the faith.

2. Matthew 22:39

3. I Corinthians 13:1-8

4. If we followed this we would never have trouble in the church.

5. Christianity is based on love and putting other first.  Other religions are not based on love.

III. Because of Divisions, Jude 4, 18 and 19.  (How are divisions caused?)

A. Bitterness

1. Ephesians 4:31

2. Hebrews 12:15, no root of bitterness

3. I Corinthians 6:6 and 7, why not be wronged.  People are going to do things to us that are wrong.  Forget it and go on.  Don’t destroy the church because you lost some money or somebody said something you don’t like.

4. Sometimes we have disagreements

a. Acts 15:36-39, Paul and Barnabas didn’t always get along.  At the start of the second journey they went their separate ways.  In Acts 13:13 John Mark had left them.  Paul didn’t want to take John and Barnabas did.

b. Paul didn’t get bitter with Barnabas and John and say I will have nothing to do with you again.  I Corinthians 9:6, Colossians 4:10 and II Timothy 4:11 were all written after Paul and Barnabas’s disagreement.

5. Paul and Peter

a. Galatians 2:11-14

b. Peter didn’t get bitter with Paul

c. II Peter 3:14-16, he calls Paul his beloved brother. 

B. Strife

1. Galatians 5:20 and II Corinthians 12:20

2. Strife – ambition, self-seeking, rivalry, self-will being an underlying idea in the word; hence it denotes “party-making,” Seeking to win followers.

3. Jude 11, Numbers 16:1-5, 12-15, 21-25, and 29-32.  Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were doing this exact thing.  God destroyed them and their followers.

C. Heresies

1. II Peter 2:1 – heresies

2. I Corinthians 11:18-19 – factions

3. Heresy (Vines) – a choosing a choice, then, “that which is chosen,” and hence an opinion,” especially a self-willed opinion, which is substituted for submission to the power of truth, and lead to division and the formation of sects.  Galatians 5:20 (margin parties); such erroneous opinions are frequently the outcome of personal preferences or the prospect of advantage.

4. Romans 14:22 Opinions you can have, but don’t cause trouble with them and don’t quarrel.

5. I Corinthians 1:10-17 there are to be no divisions or quarrels among us.

Conclusion

Contending for the faith is very important in the Christian life.  If we don’t we will end up like Cain, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.  These men quiet contending for the faith.  Their lives were destroyed by God or they had trouble for the rest of their life.  We need to contend for the faith keep sin out of our life.  Love God and man and keep division out of the church.