We often hear say “Keep the faith”.  And that’s good!  But what faith are we keeping?  It is written in Jude 1:3, 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.

As we all know, things often change, and nothing stays the same.  Some things change for good, some not so good, and some go really bad.  But some things should NEVER change, and one of them is the faith that was once delivered unto the saints.  You should be able to go in any church anywhere in the world and the doctrine should be exactly the same.  Yet it isn’t.  Why not?  Because for one reason or another, the doctrines of faith once delivered unto the saints has changed.  NO!!  Say it isn’t so!  Sorry, but they have.  Now what are we to do?

Well, it’s kind of like this; In OUR church we believe in ________ (you fill in the blank).  Mama believed that way, Grandpa believed that way, and that’s just the way it is. You go to another church and they believe in something else, and so on and so on, and if you go to a dozen different churches, you will find a dozen different kinds of doctrine.  It’s pretty obvious to me that SOMETHING is wrong, for they do not agree with one another in all things.  And yet, all the different churches go back to the same Christ Jesus, so they should all be in perfect agreement, or at least they’re SUPPOSED to be. And they’re all supposed to work like the first church worked.  That means TODAY’S church should work as good as the first church worked, with multitudes being added daily, such as should be saved.

Have you ever taken a piece of paper and written down what YOU believe?  You would find it very revealing.  Most Christians can list a few items, but when you ask them for chapter and verse to back up why they believe so, they most likely can’t do it.  How about you, can YOU support what doctrines you believe with chapter and verse from the Bible?  If you’re like most people, you’ve went to church and been taught what you believe.  Maybe you’ve been diligent to study those things out, but I’ll be you haven’t.  You’ve just assumed them to be right, and brick by brick, here a little, there a little, line upon line, precept upon precept, you’ve built your spiritual house.

Have you ever wondered why certain things you’ve grown to believe as “Gospel truth” don’t seem to be working in their actual application in your life?  This would be a perfect time to write those things down that your faith is built upon, and really get in your Bible and run those things to ground, one at a time. You just may find there are things you have accepted as Bible truth that isn’t Bible truth at all, but merely “Doctrines of men”.  And do you know what?  That’s why they never work when the pressure is on. Then, the next thing you know, you’re starting to doubt God’s Word and your whole faith is crumbling. The only things that really work are those things the Bible really teaches. And THAT’S why we need to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints.  Why?  Because THEIR faith worked, but because we’ve chosen “change” over “contending for”, we’ve watered down our faith until it is no longer pure living water, but MUD.  Let me say that again….our faith has become as mud.

When you find something that you’ve built your life on is not really correct, you’re faced with one of two decisions: you fix it or you don’t.  You can either remove that defective “brick” from the wall of faith you’ve built and replace it with a good one, or you can ignore it, thinking “The REST of the wall is in pretty good shape, I’ll just leave it alone.  Everything will be ok.” Well, actually, no it won’t be.  Because sooner or later, you will face some huge problem that will require your wall of faith to be solidly built using the “bricks” you THOUGHT were Biblical truth, and one or more of those “bricks” may turn out to be merely “Doctrines of men”, and it will fail you when you need it the most, because it was just that….doctrines of men, not founded on the Word of God at all.

Don’t worry about what so-and-so church down the street believes.  You need to know what YOU believe, and you need to know WHY you believe the way you do, and be able to back it up with chapter and verse from the Bible.  And the only way that is going to happen is for you to get in that Bible and study it day and night, until you KNOW what the first disciples knew, and then you need to APPLY what the first disciples applied, and LIVE the way the first disciples lived.  THEN when the devil hits you upside the head with whatever he hits you with, you will be able to remain standing, unmovable, just like the original disciples were able to, and overcome every evil thing by the Word of God.  Only the PURE Gospel of Jesus Christ will stand the test of time and the onslaught of the devil. Nothing less will do.  The Lord Jesus told Peter, in Matthew 16:18-19,

Mat 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Mat 16:19  And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

If you find the gates of hell are prevailing against you in some area of your life, then obviously, you have a bad brick in your wall of faith that needs to be removed and replaced with a good one.  Jesus delivered the keys to the Kingdom of heaven to the saints.  But somewhere along the way, some of the keys have been lost or “changed”, so they no longer fit the lock they were originally meant to unlock.  Some of those “Keys of the Kingdom” have been replaced with “Keys of Doctrines of Men”, because certain people in times past (and today) have decided that THEIR keys were better than those which Christ Jesus gave us. Oh, those keys are all shiny and look good and sound good, but THEY DON’T WORK!! Thus, things aren’t working as they did back when people used the ORIGINAL Keys of the Kingdom.  It’s time we ALL earnestly contended for the faith once delivered to the saints, AND CONTINUE WITH IT AND NOT MESS WITH IT!

If every man and woman of God did so, in short time we would have no more “denominations” or “doctrines of men”, for we would ALL be in one accord, holding the same doctrines in perfect unity, AND, the devil would be running from US, not the other way around.  Don’t try to build your wall of faith in one day, you can’t do it. Building it RIGHT is better than building it FAST.  Take the time to thoroughly study and KNOW each brick is right before you use it, and THEN when you really need it, you will find it will hold strong. Keeping the faith diligently is easy when everything you’ve built it upon is exactly as the faith once delivered unto the saints.  So, check out your walls today, and repair as needed. You’ll be glad you did!