Remembering what you once knew
I was born and raised until age 13 in Québec. I’m an anglophone but entered the first iteration of French Immersion when I started grade 4. When we moved to Ontario, I carried on with the program through to the end of high school with a third of my secondary credits being classes in French. I was fluent in the language and given a Certificate of Bilingualism when I graduated. But living in English Canada for all these years, I have had few opportunities to speak French, and my language skills are, at best, rough. When I get the opportunity to spend time in a francophone context, the words and phrases begin to come back pretty quickly. I remember what I once knew. It is a fact that unless we continue to rehearse and use what we know, it slips into some deep recess of our brain and is all but unretrievable without some effort to remember what we once knew well.
That is Jude’s point in addressing the significant challenges that his readers were facing with respect to false teachers. He wrote, “I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it…” and goes on to begin a recounting of basic gospel principles. And that’s what we’ll look at in Jude 1:5-7 this Sunday. Contending for the faith starts with reminding myself constantly of the gospel. In the language of our series, if we are to deconstruct and then properly reconstruct our faith, it must be on the basis of these gospel principles. Otherwise, the false teachers have their way with us and the building of our life and faith crumbles.
Series: Deconstructed-Reconstructed (Jude)
Todd Dugard
Message: 2 – Remembering what you once knew
Harvest Bible Chapel
Text: Jude 1:5-7
September 17, 2023
In truth, there are only two kinds of people; those who accept a set of beliefs and know it, and those who accept a set of beliefs and don't know it.—G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
To contend for the faith means reminding myself that…
…unbelief destroys—am I a believer? (v. 5)
Romans 2:29
Israel’s apostasy stands as a warning to all those who think that an initial commitment secures their future destiny without ongoing obedience.
Thomas R. Schreiner
We are not told in the Sermon on the Mount, ‘Live like this and you will become a Christian’; rather we are told, ‘Because you are a Christian live like this.’
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
…pride imprisons—am I humble? (v. 6)
1 Peter 5:5b
When others tell me that the reason I left the Church was simply because I really didn’t know the ‘One True God’, the truth is, I did. The problem was that in order for me to keep believing in 'Him', I had to keep abandoning myself. So instead, I chose ME for the first time.
For many people, deconstruction isn’t about submitting to God. It’s about choosing to be your own god.
redpenlogic
Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you.
Andrew Murray, Humility: The Journey Toward Holiness
Humility is the displacement of self by the enthronement of God.
Andrew Murray
Matthew 16:24
…immorality condemns—am I pursuing holiness? (v. 7)
ἐκπορνεύω; ekporneuō – to engage in sexual immorality of any kind, often with the implication of prostitution; to engage in illicit sex, to commit fornication
L&N 88.271
Ezekiel 16:49-50
Sometimes we don't want God to be real because we want permission to sin without consequence. We want an intimate God on Sundays and an impersonal God who looks the other way for the rest of the week.
Lecrae, I Am Restored: How I Lost My Religion but Found My Faith
RESOURCES
Another Gospel?: A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity by Alisa Childers and Lee Strobel
https://a.co/d/fXuuEaT
The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back? by Michael Graham
https://a.co/d/etjiIIq
I Am Restored: How I Lost My Religion but Found My Faith
https://a.co/d/7lFqs2H
Before You Lose Your Faith: Deconstructing Doubt in the Church
https://a.co/d/6r7v4lg
Alisa Childers podcasts
Cross Examined podcasts
https://crossexamined.org/podcasts/
Red Pen Logic
https://www.youtube.com/c/RedPenLogic
https://www.facebook.com/redpenlogic
https://www.instagram.com/redpenlogic/