The NXR Podcast - November 06, 2023


SUNDAY SERMON - For Those Doubting Their Salvation

Topics
love test love tests in Scripture love test glorification and resurrection
Hosted by
Joel Webbon Harrison Smith Antonio Griffith Dale Partridge Wewsley Todd Calvin Robinson
Mentioned
John Owen Jesus Christ Talladega Nights Doubting Castle Jared Longshore Led Zeppelin Ricky Bobby John Bunyan Chris Wiley John Gotti John Watt Jeremiah Abraham Sabbath Hebrews Isaiah James Paul
DAILY TRUTH - The Rotten Fruit Of “Niceness” DAILY TRUTH - Yes, Yoga Is Demonic

Episode Stats


Length

56 minutes

Words per minute

145.96

Word count

8,291

Sentence count

268

Harmful content

Toxicity

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

23

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

What is the difference between believing in Jesus Christ and knowing Him as the Son of God? What does John say at the end of John's First Epistle to the Church about the difference? Is there a difference between the two?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00 Today, our text is going to be 1st John chapter 5, verse 18 through 21.
00:00:04 These are the final verses of John's first epistle, letter.
00:00:09 1st John chapter 5, verse 18 through 21.
00:00:12 Would you join me now in standing for the reading of God's Word?
00:00:15 When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say,
00:00:17 this is the Word of the Lord, at which point I would appreciate very much
00:00:20 if you would respond by saying, thanks be to God.
00:00:23 One final time, our text for today is 1st John chapter 5, verse 18 through 21.
00:00:28 the Bible says this, we know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning,
00:00:35 but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are
00:00:42 from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one, and we know that the Son of God
00:00:49 has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who
00:00:56 is true in his son Jesus Christ he is the true God and eternal life little children keep yourselves
00:01:05 from idols this is the word of the Lord all right please be seated let's go ahead and begin
00:01:11 by way of introduction I've written the following throughout first John this is a major theme that
00:01:16 you need to understand there is a massive emphasis on what we as Christians can know for certain
00:01:22 John writes multiple times here's a few examples by this we know that we have come to know him if
00:01:29 we keep his commandments we can know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments first
00:01:36 John 2 3 John writes to the fathers that is fathers in the faith those who are spiritually
00:01:41 mature because they know him who has been from the beginning that's first John chapter 2 verse 13
00:01:49 john writes to the children because they know the father that's first john 2 14 then john says
00:01:57 we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren that's first
00:02:04 john chapter 3 verse 14 we can know we've been born again we can know that we have been granted
00:02:11 eternal life if there's a condition we love the brethren that's not just loving your neighbor
00:02:18 but specifically your brother your brother and or sister in christ and at the conclusion now
00:02:27 of john's letter he drives home this theme of certainty again by saying these things i have
00:02:34 written to you who believe in the name of the son of god so that you may know that you have
00:02:41 eternal life that's first john chapter 5 a few verses earlier verse 13 now there's a striking
00:02:49 connection a correlation between the end of john's gospel and the end of john's first epistle
00:02:58 in john's gospel chapter 20 verse 30 he says this i had it the wind blew when i say wind i mean
00:03:07 artificial wind ac here we go john chapter 20 verse 30 now jesus did many other signs in the
00:03:18 presence of the disciples which are not written in this book but these are written so that you
00:03:24 may believe that jesus is the christ the son of god and that by believing you may have life
00:03:32 in his name. This is what John inspired by the Holy Spirit says at the very end or near the very
00:03:40 end of his gospel. He's saying these are all the signs and wonders and miracles which Jesus
00:03:47 performed in his earthly ministry. This is his life. This is his death. This is his bodily
00:03:53 resurrection. This is his glorious ascension to the right hand of the Father. His appearance to
00:04:00 over 500 witnesses, eyewitnesses, after his resurrection. This is the testimony of Jesus
00:04:07 Christ. All that he did, all that he said, his promises are sure. And he has fulfilled
00:04:14 all of these prophecies, messianic prophecies, spoken by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the prophets
00:04:22 of old. And these things have not just been committed to the oral tradition, but rather
00:04:28 written down so that you might believe so the gospel of john it's pinning being inspired by
00:04:37 the holy spirit was for many purposes but we can argue a chief purpose is so that future disciples
00:04:45 of jesus might believe that you might believe that jesus is the son of god that he is the christ
00:04:52 the anointed one the promised messiah however similar but with one major distinction what john
00:05:01 writes at the end of his first epistle is these things have been written not just that you might
00:05:07 believe but these things have been written to you who believe in the name of the son of god
00:05:13 so that you might know that you have eternal life to summon up in short at the end of john's
00:05:22 gospel he says i've written these things so that you might believe but at the end of his first
00:05:27 epistle which was written later he says these things have been written so that you might know
00:05:34 that you believe brothers and sisters there is a connection and yet also a strong distinction
00:05:43 a massive difference between believing in jesus and knowing that you believe in jesus the difference
00:05:52 is the difference between salvation and the assurance of salvation that's the difference
00:06:00 that we're going to be looking at today there is a distinction between salvation and the assurance
00:06:08 of salvation a man can have salvation and yet have little assurance
00:06:14 it's quite possible it is quite possible for someone to have genuine bona fide salvation
00:06:23 by grace through faith in christ alone and yet possess little certainty confidence or assurance
00:06:32 that he has salvation it is also quite possible for a man to possess an abundance of assurance
00:06:39 of salvation but for that in the end to prove to be a false assurance that he is assured of
00:06:48 a salvation that he does not actually possess so you can have assurance of salvation without having
00:06:54 salvation which is terribly frightening and you can have salvation that is genuine and true but
00:07:01 without having much assurance and john between his gospel and his first epistle again inspired
00:07:10 by the holy spirit so deeper than just john god wants us as his children to not only possess
00:07:18 salvation to be his children but also to be assured children confident children certain
00:07:27 children that we are not sitting in a field surrounded by flowers picking the petals
00:07:35 saying god loves me he loves me not he loves me he loves me not but that we would able to
00:07:42 be able to say with confidence not confidence in ourselves or confidence in the flesh
00:07:47 but confidence in christ he loves me and that that would be the end of the story
00:07:53 And this is one of the great differences between Roman Catholicism and the Protestant Reformation.
00:08:04 The Protestant Reformation, the reformers argued that a man can indeed have assurance that he belongs to Christ in this life.
00:08:17 that he doesn't have to lie on his deathbed wondering whether or not he's truly been born
00:08:24 again wondering what his final destination might be but that he can rest with assurance and
00:08:31 confidence that he belongs to christ now notice one other thing before we move on
00:08:38 every single time that john writes in his first epistle that you might know that you might know
00:08:46 that you might know in every one of these cases he cites something that is objective
00:08:53 as the condition for knowing it's not subjective this is where i think unfortunately some
00:09:01 protestants have gone too far so don't get me wrong it's way too close to october 31st
00:09:09 for me to say anything good about roman catholicism and yet at the risk of saying
00:09:17 something good about roman catholicism the one nice thing that rome did there are a few
00:09:24 but i'll name one the one nice thing that rome did is that they made some tangible touch points
00:09:34 handles that can be held on to when it comes to the faith now the problem is that the handles
00:09:43 they provided these objective signs and seals that they provided did not have scriptural root
00:09:49 that was the problem but again at the risk of now forfeiting my protestant card
00:09:58 I think that Protestants placed too much emphasis on the subjective inward feelings of assurance
00:10:07 and not enough emphasis on outward objective signs and seals of assurance.
00:10:17 What I'm saying is that within Roman Catholicism, you have seven sacraments. 0.61
00:10:22 Protestants, we have two. Protestants are right. 1.00
00:10:24 you have seven sacraments but here's the idea with with a roman catholic 0.99
00:10:30 you get baptized in the church and they would hold to baptismal regeneration so it would take 1.00
00:10:36 you from mortal sins and put you on the right track and that inevitably you're going to fall
00:10:41 and so you're going to need to be rewashed and set back on the right track again and again but
00:10:45 it would start with your baptism as an infant as a baby baptismal regeneration they actually
00:10:51 believe that baptism saves in the literal sense. So it causes the person to be born again. So
00:10:57 baptism, that is a sacrament. And after that, you would have confirmation. That would be another
00:11:02 sacrament. At that point, you would begin participating in the Eucharist, the mass,
00:11:08 the Eucharist, which would include both the bread and also the wine transubstantiation, 0.75
00:11:13 literally turned into the flesh and the blood of Christ, which is wrong. But that would be
00:11:18 another sacrament. They believe that grace is infused, not imputed, that is accredited, accounted
00:11:25 for righteousness through faith alone, like the scripture says of Abraham, but rather infused.
00:11:31 And it's infused, grace is infused through sacraments. And in other cases, perhaps relics
00:11:36 and rituals, but certainly sacraments and certainly baptism and the Eucharist. So you have baptism,
00:11:45 then confirmation, then the Eucharist.
00:11:47 Then you have confession, which would also be a sacrament.
00:11:51 That you would go periodically before the priest
00:11:54 in a confessional booth.
00:11:56 Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.
00:11:58 It has been this long since my last confession.
00:12:01 You would then begin to recount the sins
00:12:03 that you have committed against God and your fellow man.
00:12:06 The priest would then prescribe to you
00:12:08 some form of penance, which is distinct from repentance.
00:12:12 this many our fathers this many hail marys if you perform these outward objective signs
00:12:20 if you do what the priest says then again you have handles that you can hold on to
00:12:26 so you have confession as a sacrament marriage would also be a sacrament according to roman
00:12:32 catholicism not within the protestant faith again we have two baptism in the lord's supper
00:12:38 But you make sure that you're baptized in a Catholic church.
00:12:41 You make sure you get married in a Catholic church.
00:12:44 You make sure you're confirmed in a Catholic church.
00:12:47 That you go and you confess your sin to a Catholic priest from time to time.
00:12:52 You take the Mass in a Catholic church.
00:12:55 And you have your last rites read to you on your deathbed by a Catholic priest.
00:13:01 And the seventh sacrament would be, in the case of the priesthood, becoming a priest.
00:13:06 Ordination.
00:13:06 there are handles very objective outward signs and seals there's something there
00:13:13 and protestants unfortunately a lot of the assurance that we rest in ironically is feelings
00:13:21 that you feel saved that you feel the love of god that you feel christ's work is for you
00:13:28 but when you read john's epistle his first epistle that's just not the way it reads
00:13:34 and so and being faithful to the true protestant tradition i'm going to go with scripture alone
00:13:43 and not mere traditions whether they be roman traditions or protestant traditions
00:13:48 for that matter but there's scripture alone and in the scripture john inspired by the holy spirit
00:13:56 says again and again and again and again you can know you can know you can know and then he gives
00:14:02 very tangible outward objective signs you can know that you're a christian if you love the saints
00:14:11 you can know you're a christian if you obey christ's commandments and you can know you're
00:14:19 a christian if you have both a biblical and personal confession of christ every single one
00:14:28 of John's spiritual test that you find in 1 John can be categorized in one of those three primary
00:14:35 categories. The love test, the obedience test, and the doctrinal test. You might call it the truth
00:14:43 test. Love, obedience, and truth. The love test is love for the saints. It's not just love for your
00:14:52 neighbor but love for your brother it's important for us to remember that we have a universal
00:15:00 neighborhood what i mean by that is all 8.2 8.3 whatever it is billion people on the planet right
00:15:07 now they are all our neighbors they are not all our brothers the bible teaches when it comes to
00:15:15 humanity a universal neighborhood that stems from the universal creatorhood of god god is universal
00:15:24 creator there's not one person that god is not their creator and there's not one person that
00:15:30 is not our neighbor but the bible while teaching universal creatorhood of god and neighborhood of
00:15:37 humanity the bible teaches particular fatherhood and particular brotherhood god is creator of all
00:15:46 but father of some and everyone is my neighbor and but not everyone is my brother
00:15:54 and john is actually just echoing the words of jesus christ himself who taught
00:16:02 that whatever you do for the least of these here's the key phrase my brothers you have done for me
00:16:11 we have so taken the words of christ in that particular place out of context we say whatever
00:16:20 you do for the least of these you've done for jesus so how do you love jesus who is at the
00:16:26 right hand of God the Father. How do I love Christ? Well, I can't go to heaven, not now.
00:16:34 But the way that I can feed Christ is I can feed the least of these. I can clothe Christ
00:16:40 by clothing the least of these. I can visit Christ when he's oppressed and imprisoned
00:16:45 by visiting these. That's what Jesus says, that if you even give a cup of cold water to one of
00:16:53 these little ones in my name, you've done it for me. How do you love Jesus? Well, you love the least
00:17:01 of these. But again, the key phrase is the least of these, my brothers. We've taken that out of
00:17:09 context because what we've done with evangelical Protestant churches today is we've just said the
00:17:15 least of these, and we've removed that phrase, my brothers. And then we think that it's our own
00:17:22 decision that we have our own creative license and authority to determine who are the least of 1.00
00:17:29 these in society today and so we'll say well the least of these are lgbt community and i would say 1.00
00:17:38 well no it's the least of these my brothers these people are living in impenitent sin 1.00
00:17:44 therefore there is no sign that they are brothers secondly even by the standard of neighbors these
00:17:50 are not the least of these. These would be equivalent to princes and kings. There is no
00:17:55 higher status you could have in our God-hating society today than being LGBT. They're not 0.99
00:18:01 oppressed. Three percent of the population is oppressing 97 percent. These are not the least
00:18:10 of these by any metric of being the least of these, much less a biblical metric. So let's go
00:18:17 ahead and remove that one. Well, maybe the least of these isn't, you know, LGBT, LMNOP, whatever,
00:18:23 but maybe the least of these are immigrants. We've heard that one. 0.99
00:18:30 Maybe it's immigrants. I mean, they have no rights. What do you mean? 1.00
00:18:37 They do have rights. Our taxes go to them, whether they do anything or not.
00:18:44 they're given checks they're paid
00:18:50 in some places they can vote depending on that city and that county
00:18:57 no no they're not the least of these and that's again is by a universal neighborhood standard
00:19:07 but again that's not the biblical standard whatever you do for the least of these
00:19:11 my brothers. When Jesus says, whatever you do for the least of these, my brothers, the person who's
00:19:16 imprisoned, you know who he's talking about? The person who's imprisoned as a Christian for preaching 0.99
00:19:21 the gospel. The person who's wrongfully imprisoned. When you clothe those who are naked, my brothers,
00:19:28 he's talking about Christians who have been plundered and robbed and persecuted for their
00:19:33 faith in Christ. Those who are hungry, who are Christians. The one who welcomes a prophet
00:19:38 receives a prophet's reward.
00:19:42 The one who welcomes an evangelist,
00:19:44 a missionary receives a missionary
00:19:46 or an evangelist's reward.
00:19:49 What we see again and again in Scripture is this.
00:19:52 We are called to love everyone as our neighbor,
00:19:54 but there is an order of loves.
00:19:58 There is an order of rightly ordered affections.
00:20:05 We are called to love some more than others.
00:20:08 a man is called to love his wife more than other women he is called to love his children more than
00:20:16 his neighbor's children and as christians we are called to love the household of faith
00:20:21 as a priority above all others who are outside of the faith galatians chapter 6 to cite more
00:20:30 scripture the apostle paul he says this as often as you have opportunity do good to all
00:20:35 but especially the household of faith that is but prioritize the household of faith christ who is
00:20:42 god and therefore infinite works through his body the church which is finite christ is infinite but
00:20:50 the church here on earth the body of christ is not infinite the church is finite it has a set
00:20:57 amount of people at any given point with a set amount of resources a set amount of gifts and
00:21:02 talents and treasure and therefore because the church is not infinite but finite as all finite
00:21:09 creatures must do we have to learn when to say yes and when to say no we have to learn what to
00:21:17 prioritize who to prioritize and what to guard against as often as you have opportunity do good
00:21:27 all but especially the household of faith that is prioritize the least of these my brothers
00:21:36 the church so john gives three major tests for not just being saved but here's the key
00:21:46 knowing that you're saved the gospel of john i write to you that you might believe
00:21:52 the first epistle of john i write to you that you might know that you have believed there's a
00:21:59 distinction between salvation and assurance of salvation and in this category of the assurance
00:22:04 of salvation throughout the entirety of first john three main tests are listed the love test
00:22:12 that's what i've been espousing these last seven minutes love for the household of faith love for
00:22:20 the brothers. Love for Christians. The obedience test, obedience to Christ's commandments,
00:22:30 beginning with the moral law of God, which we find in its summary in Exodus chapter 20,
00:22:37 the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments. Love for God and neighbor, not creatively defined by you,
00:22:44 but immutably defined by God in Scripture.
00:22:49 Love for God.
00:22:50 Have no other gods before me.
00:22:52 Do not make for yourself any graven images.
00:22:55 Do not take the Lord's name in vain
00:22:57 and remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.
00:23:01 Love for neighbor
00:23:02 and particularly fellow brothers in Christ.
00:23:07 Honor thy father and mother.
00:23:09 Do not murder.
00:23:10 Do not commit adultery.
00:23:12 Do not steal.
00:23:14 do not bear false witness, and do not covet. This is how we love our neighbor. The first
00:23:21 four commandments teach us how we love the Lord our God. So the obedience test, obedience to
00:23:28 the moral commands of God. As we grow in outward obedience, it's tangible, it's objective,
00:23:36 it can be witnessed, not just by you. Here's the beauty. Not just by you, but it can be
00:23:42 co-discerned as we grow in obedience and our outward obedience to the commands of god
00:23:47 is witnessed by others namely again the household of faith so that i can have others not just myself
00:23:55 not just dependent on my own subjective fleeting feelings of confidence and assurance and the love
00:24:00 of god for me but i can look when i'm lacking assurance to my wife to my parents to my friends
00:24:08 to my church and they can say brother you're lacking in assurance right now i understand
00:24:13 you've confessed that to us that you're struggling with insecurity and fear doubting the love of god
00:24:19 but this is what we've seen this is what we've heard this is what we know and you should know
00:24:27 as well the love test do you love your neighbor and more particularly in first john do you love
00:24:34 your brother the obedience test are you outwardly tangibly obeying the commandments of God
00:24:41 and lastly the truth test or the doctrinal test do you have a proper confession of faith
00:24:49 do you have a proper confession of faith in Christ and a proper confession I would say
00:24:56 two main elements for it to be proper it must be a biblical confession and it also must be a
00:25:04 personal confession biblical and personal biblical we see in first john anyone who confesses that
00:25:13 christ has come in the flesh or stated in the negative he says anyone who does not confess
00:25:19 that christ has come in the flesh is the antichrist or an antichrist many antichrists
00:25:26 have gone out into the world and one of the ways that you can know them
00:25:30 is that they deny that Christ has come in the flesh they deny the incarnation and that might
00:25:39 seem so general as though it's not specific enough but there is much that inherently comes
00:25:46 with that one statement of Christ coming in the flesh one of the things that comes with it is
00:25:50 it presupposes it assumes that Christ existed before his incarnation before he came in the flesh
00:25:59 meaning what it assumes by necessary inference that christ has come in the flesh that he pre-existed
00:26:08 before coming in the flesh that he is eternal that he is god and not only that he is god before the
00:26:15 flesh but he is the god man fully god fully man that statement includes with it the hypostatic
00:26:24 union that he is the second member of the trinity it includes the incarnation it includes his deity
00:26:30 it includes a lot so you must have a biblical confession of christ but also a personal
00:26:37 confession for this i'll reference galatians again the apostle paul
00:26:43 he says i know this i'm confident of it that christ loved me and gave himself up for me
00:26:54 brothers and sisters the biblical confession is absolutely vital but it is not sufficient in and
00:27:01 of itself it must be a biblical confession of christ that is what you confess about jesus
00:27:07 aligns with the scripture it's not build a jesus right build a bear remember that store in the
00:27:12 mall you go and i'll take a little bit of this a little bit of that we're going to make our own
00:27:16 custom teddy bear right a lot of churches a lot of evangelicals are playing build a jesus on sunday
00:27:21 all right some people like hippie jesus all right he hugs trees he's got dreadlocks
00:27:29 he's really concerned with world peace and he wouldn't hurt a fly
00:27:33 everybody's got a different jesus i'm not i'm not endorsing this okay so do not take me out
00:27:41 of context don't go home and watch this movie but once upon a time because i too am a sinner
00:27:45 i watched all day good nights all right there we go some confession we're confessing our sin to the
00:27:50 Lord. We've already heard the assurance of pardon. There's forgiveness in Christ. But I did. I
00:27:57 confess. I have once upon a time watched Talladega Nights. Ricky Bobby. All right. Two first names.
00:28:03 There's a scene in that movie where they're going back and forth arguing about which Jesus is best.
00:28:09 Well, I like the, you know, the figure skating Jesus. You know, I like my Jesus to be like a
00:28:14 lead singer of Led Zeppelin. I'm sitting on the front row and they say some other things.
00:28:19 or i like my jesus to be the baby jesus you know little deer little eight pounds six
00:28:24 and it's a blasphemous scene don't get me wrong it's terrible
00:28:27 however here's the saddest part it's not just sad that you know will ferrell who is pretty
00:28:33 funny is blaspheming christ in this movie for millions of people to watch the saddest part
00:28:38 is that it is almost synonymous with what evangelical churches do on sunday morning
00:28:44 at least will ferrell meant it as a joke at least he recognized that you know this is laughable
00:28:53 whereas a bunch of evangelical pastors they do it and they are completely serious
00:28:58 well we like our jesus to be like this we like our jesus to be like and and the jesus that they
00:29:05 begin to describe in their 20 minute ted talk sermon has nothing to do with the jesus of
00:29:10 scripture so first and foremost the truth test it must be a biblical profession a biblical
00:29:17 confession of jesus but secondly in line with the apostle paul in the book of galatians his letter
00:29:23 to the galatians it must also be a personal confession of jesus what i mean is this it is
00:29:28 not enough to confess that christ came in the flesh and died for someone somewhere out there
00:29:33 but you must be able to echo the words of the apostle paul and saying i am convinced that
00:29:39 Christ loved me and gave himself up for me so our confession must be biblical and personal
00:29:48 three tests of assurance but notice all of them tangible tests objective outward witnessable
00:29:58 the test of love and when John begins to spell out the test of love he's thinking about the
00:30:06 words of christ and he's also thinking of james and what james says about love do not just merely
00:30:14 say to your brother be warm and well fed but give him nothing and send him on his way
00:30:18 james echoing christ as well says this is what love looks like love can be witnessed
00:30:26 love is visible what does love look like it looks like cash a lot of times
00:30:34 what does love look like it looks like clothes it looks like water it looks like food it looks like
00:30:42 a visit to prison this is what love looks like love can be witnessed love is tangible it is not
00:30:51 a mere theoretical love it is a love indeed it is a love in function in practice there's a particular
00:31:00 object of love, if the object ultimately is Christ, then the object on the horizontal plane
00:31:07 in the life that we live here and now is the people of Christ. So how do I know that I love
00:31:12 Jesus? I love the people of Jesus. And how do I love them? Not just who do I love, but how do I
00:31:19 love? I love them in tangible ways. I love them in deed and in action and not merely word or in
00:31:29 theory the love test the obedience test how do i know that i love god i that's what was said to
00:31:38 jesus his disciples we love you if you love me keep my commandments tangible witnessable outward
00:31:49 obedience to both tables of the law the first four commandments love for god the next six of
00:31:58 the Ten Commandments, love for neighbor, with a priority on love for brothers. Love test,
00:32:07 obedience test, truth test, a profession of Christ. Notice, perfect doctrine is not what I'm speaking
00:32:16 of. No one has it. Not in this life. I don't. But understanding the doctrine of Christ and the
00:32:27 salvation that he freely offers by grace through faith in him alone the person and work this is
00:32:34 what i'm speaking of the person and work of jesus have you ever heard that phrase
00:32:39 trusting in the person and work of jesus this is what that phrase means in its simplicity
00:32:44 right because there's a lot of things that get thrown around platitudes and sometimes
00:32:48 you know we'll go 50 years without something being defined and everybody's doing the what
00:32:53 but they've forgotten the why.
00:32:54 And then all of a sudden the church
00:32:55 begins to slide and compromise
00:32:57 because we stopped teaching the why.
00:33:00 And we get mad about the laser lights
00:33:02 and the smoke machines, you know, in Sunday worship.
00:33:05 But pastors a long time ago,
00:33:07 long before the smoke machines
00:33:09 made their way into the Sunday service,
00:33:11 pastors were going through the liturgy
00:33:12 but not explaining to the congregants why they did so.
00:33:16 And their children forgot.
00:33:17 And their children began to reject.
00:33:21 They began to kick against the goats.
00:33:22 and they thought they were doing it
00:33:23 even in a passion and zeal for Christ. 0.97
00:33:27 Because it just seemed like the traditions of men
00:33:29 because the traditions had no longer been explained.
00:33:33 So what's the person and work of Jesus Christ?
00:33:35 In simplicity, the person speaks to the fact
00:33:39 that he is the God-man.
00:33:40 So when we say trusting in the person and work of Jesus,
00:33:42 we're saying we trust that Jesus is fully God, fully man.
00:33:46 We're speaking of the incarnation.
00:33:47 We're speaking of his deity and his humanity.
00:33:50 We're speaking that he is eternal.
00:33:52 that he's eternally begotten, not made.
00:33:56 Jesus is not the first among creatures,
00:33:59 but he is the creator who is to be forever praised.
00:34:02 Amen.
00:34:03 That for him and by him and through him,
00:34:05 all things that have been made were made.
00:34:08 And in him, all things that have been made
00:34:10 are being held together.
00:34:12 Hebrews 1 says this.
00:34:14 Colossians says this.
00:34:16 Jesus is God, creator God, eternal God,
00:34:20 second member of the Godhead.
00:34:22 but he is also man, not partially man, but fully man, so that he is able to represent man.
00:34:32 In his godness, he could pay the infinite penalty of the sins of his people. In his manness, he is
00:34:43 able to accurately represent people, fully God and fully man, and he is forever the God-man.
00:34:52 Still, in now, the glorified human flesh
00:34:56 at the right hand of the Father,
00:34:58 resurrected, not just revived,
00:35:00 but truly resurrected and glorified
00:35:03 as a first fruits of what all those who trust in Him
00:35:06 will one day receive.
00:35:09 The glorification and resurrection of our own bodies,
00:35:13 these bodies, not new bodies meaning another body,
00:35:17 but new bodies meaning this body made new.
00:35:20 and i believe the same doctrinally for this earth for that matter not annihilated disintegrated
00:35:27 and burned up in a literal sense but this world made new that all creation cries out with groans
00:35:37 and eager expectations for the sons of god to be revealed for in their restoration the cosmos will
00:35:43 be restored as well that the creation is not crying out with eager groans and expectations
00:35:48 for a mercy killing to be taken out back behind the woodshed and put down by god so that the sons
00:35:55 of god can now replace the creation but rather as the sons of god are restored and renewed so too
00:36:01 mountains and rivers and trees will be renewed as well that we will live in heaven with god but one
00:36:10 day at the final culmination of human history that the new heavens will come to this earth made new
00:36:17 and that we will see things
00:36:19 that are strikingly familiar to us,
00:36:23 but now glorify.
00:36:25 I know that mountain range,
00:36:27 but it never looked like that.
00:36:30 Now I see it in its true majesty.
00:36:33 I know this river.
00:36:34 I used to fish in it when I was a kid.
00:36:36 Now look at it.
00:36:43 Jesus is the God-man,
00:36:45 the person of Jesus.
00:36:47 His work, life, sinless, and not only an absence of sin, but a presence and fulfillment of all
00:36:56 righteousness. Not only avoiding sin, but obeying all the commandments of God, his Father.
00:37:05 This is what Jesus says to John the Baptist. When John says, I can't baptize you. I'm not worthy.
00:37:10 And Jesus says, you must, to fulfill all righteousness.
00:37:16 It is not only Jesus' passive obedience,
00:37:19 his willingness to die as a substitute on the cross for you and die,
00:37:22 but also his active obedience, as John Owen and the Reformers would argue,
00:37:27 that he actively obeyed and fulfilled all the commandments of God in his life.
00:37:32 Not only was his death obedience to God, but he lived a life of obedience.
00:37:38 So his life, his death, and his death not as a mere example of sacrificial love,
00:37:44 but his life as payment, atonement, propitiation, as penal substitutionary atonement.
00:37:52 He died as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
00:37:56 He died in our place.
00:37:58 His resurrection, not as a mere metaphor,
00:38:01 speaking to the power and the triumph of the human spirit,
00:38:04 but his literal bodily resurrection from the dead and his ascension in glory and majesty and power
00:38:14 and authority that he is raised before people's very eyes and then hidden behind the clouds as
00:38:21 he enters into heaven to be seated to sit down at his father's right hand and right before he does
00:38:29 this, he says, all authority, not just in the 17th dimension, but on earth and in heaven has been
00:38:36 given to me. So you will go in obedience to my commands, making disciples, and you will be
00:38:42 successful. And you will disciple nations. And in discipling them, you will not only preach the
00:38:48 gospel for conversion and their baptism, but then you will teach them theonomy to obey all my
00:38:55 commands and this is not separate but included in the great commission this is the work of jesus
00:39:03 and the work which he still does that he intercedes on our behalf is praying for his own
00:39:10 and promises one day to finally and physically return the person and work of jesus who he is
00:39:19 the God-man. What he's done? Life, death, resurrection, ascension, and promised return.
00:39:24 This is the person and work of Jesus. This is the truth test. Do you believe the truth
00:39:29 in these issues? You can be wrong about other things. We should strive to be right in all things,
00:39:37 to believe the sufficiency of Scripture in all things, not only sola scriptura, but tota scriptura,
00:39:44 not just some of Scripture, not just red-letter Scripture, but all of Scripture, which is part
00:39:48 of the problem in the evangelical protestant church today we believe what jesus says about
00:39:54 salvation but little about what the bible says for life in this in this time
00:40:00 we think that the bible speaks to marriage and family and the church and eternal life but
00:40:07 certainly it has nothing to say about culture society the civil realm oh but it does and those
00:40:15 things matter but what must be there those things matter don't get me wrong but you could be wrong
00:40:22 on some of those issues but what must be there is rightly biblically accurately professing the
00:40:29 person and work of jesus and not only a biblical profession but also a personal confession this
00:40:38 Jesus did not just give himself up for someone somewhere out there but he died for me the love
00:40:48 test the obedience test and the truth test by this you might know you might know and not just
00:40:57 you others can know because all of these things are tangible a profession is something that you
00:41:03 confess with your mouth you must believe in your heart but also confess with your mouth and we do
00:41:10 it every lord's day we confess both the person and work of jesus in the creeds each lord's day
00:41:19 and we do it not only privately but publicly corporately with one another
00:41:24 obedience to christ's commands is something that has physical outward witnessable implications
00:41:32 Your wife will be able to tell you
00:41:35 whether or not you are obeying Christ's commands.
00:41:38 And she will helpfully remind you
00:41:42 when you are not, most likely.
00:41:43 And hopefully do so in a respectful manner.
00:41:46 But also do so.
00:41:49 And love, as Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount,
00:41:53 as James says, as Paul says, as John says,
00:41:58 love for the brothers is a tangible love indeed and not mere word or theory
00:42:04 and all these ways we can know that we belong to christ now notice the ways you
00:42:12 know you belong to christ is not by eating the literal flesh and drinking the literal
00:42:16 blood of jesus and a roman catholic church
00:42:19 and it's not by having a priest come and read you your last rites on your deathbed 0.88
00:42:27 it's not through confirmation it's not through their joke of a baptism
00:42:32 and i don't mean it's a joke because they do it with babies i'm saying it's a joke because
00:42:37 they believe that it literally causes you to be born again baptismal regeneration
00:42:41 and i'll throw lutherans in there for good measure just to be fair
00:42:47 no this is not how grace is imputed or as rome would say infused
00:42:56 but there are ways in which grace not is imputed it is imputed by grace through faith in christ
00:43:04 alone but there are ways in which grace that is imputed by faith alone can be seen
00:43:10 it can be confirmed so that you can be confident and know that you belong to christ god is a father
00:43:20 And it is not the will of our loving heavenly father
00:43:26 that his children should think on a regular basis
00:43:30 that their father does not love them.
00:43:34 It is not the will of God that his children
00:43:38 should constantly be tossing and turning,
00:43:42 unsure of whether or not God loves them,
00:43:46 will keep them, has saved them.
00:43:50 and we can know now this knowledge assurance one more thing that should be added it is not a pass
00:43:57 fail system it doesn't work like that assurance of salvation is not something that a switch is
00:44:07 flipped to where you have 100 assurance or zero percent assurance assurance assurance instead
00:44:16 can fluctuate you can have less and at times you can have more now again that's not the goal it's
00:44:26 the very thing that john is writing against but assurance does fluctuate
00:44:32 especially in times of living in unrepentant sin
00:44:38 so that you may actually be a christian and actually possess salvation be saved by genuine
00:44:47 grace through genuine faith in christ alone but for whatever reason you've been sinning
00:44:55 and hiding your sin not confessing your sin one to another that you might pray for one another
00:45:02 that you might be healed.
00:45:04 And therefore, although your salvation is not lost
00:45:07 because you did nothing to earn it,
00:45:09 you can do nothing to lose it.
00:45:11 And yet in the subjective sense of feeling salvation,
00:45:16 the knowing of salvation, the assurance of salvation,
00:45:19 the assurance can wane.
00:45:21 The salvation is pass fail.
00:45:24 Let me make this plain.
00:45:25 Salvation itself is all or nothing.
00:45:28 a man either stands wholly justified before christ or wholly condemned there is no partial
00:45:35 justification there is no partial salvation and once you have been granted salvation
00:45:41 you cannot lose that which you did not earn you will be secure in christ but what you can
00:45:50 lose or at least decrease in is confidence of salvation assurance of salvation
00:45:58 the puritans called this god's fatherly so it's for the christian who god is their father his
00:46:06 fatherly displeasure there is such a thing as having god as your enemy as for the unbeliever
00:46:14 but there is another thing as being an adopted child of god and yet knowing in some sense he's
00:46:21 your father but being underneath his fatherly displeasure for a time for a season because of
00:46:27 unrepentant sin almost all of the time that's the reason and therefore during this season
00:46:32 being weighed down heavy david says this as a christian heavy was your hand upon me
00:46:40 we see that there are people in the scripture who were born again that have seasons where
00:46:47 the weight of god's conviction and his displeasure fatherly albeit but displeasure
00:46:54 fatherly displeasure is upon an individual and during those moments they toss and turn in their
00:47:00 beds often fasting and going without food there's no sense of peace no sense of comfort
00:47:06 the christian can have a lack of assurance
00:47:10 but the christian can also have increased assurance and this increased assurance comes
00:47:19 by christ's work through you now listen this is where the objection will come
00:47:23 from protestants they'll say well you're making assurance of salvation about the work of man
00:47:30 you're saying that if you're more obedient you can be more assured that's right i'm saying that
00:47:35 that's right but here's the deal it is all christ work justification i can say it most
00:47:44 simply like this justification is christ's work for you sanctification is christ's work through
00:47:50 you but it's still christ's work good works which he predestined for us to walk in work out your
00:47:59 salvation with fear and trembling knowing that it is he who wills and works in and through you that
00:48:04 which is good and pleasing in his sight justification salvation itself is christ's work for you
00:48:11 but sanctification growing in love for the saints growing in obedience to christ's commands
00:48:18 and having a biblical and personal confession,
00:48:21 a doctrine that is true.
00:48:23 Sanctification is Christ's work through you.
00:48:27 So that it's all grace, it's all Christ's work.
00:48:31 But we must be able to distinguish between the two.
00:48:33 It is the prerogative and the sole duty of a theologian
00:48:36 to make distinctions.
00:48:39 One God, three persons.
00:48:43 Distinguishing between essence and personhood.
00:48:45 we don't divorce but we also don't mix and blend we distinguish so too when it comes to
00:48:55 justification salvation itself and sanctification passing these three tests that john gives us
00:49:03 in his first epistle that we might know the assurance of salvation these two things are
00:49:08 distinct connected certainly but distinguishable nonetheless justification from sanctification
00:49:16 justification christ work for you sanctification christ work in and through you and as christ work
00:49:24 in and through you grows and is tangible not just a work in theory but a work that can be
00:49:32 witnessed and seen by you and others, you should grow in assurance. And if for whatever reason
00:49:42 you choose to live in a prolonged season of unrepentant sin so that obedience begins to wane,
00:49:51 sanctification seems to stall and stagnate, Christ's work through you seems as though
00:49:58 it is minimal then in those seasons you should have less assurance you should
00:50:06 all right that's the introduction we'll pick it up later huh i guess there you go
00:50:14 so yeah we'll pick it up this is what i want to do next not next week two weeks from now
00:50:20 in our text today john uses the word no three more times at the beginning of verses 18 19 and 20
00:50:28 What we see is this from our text.
00:50:30 Christians are kept from sin.
00:50:33 We can know that we'll be kept from sin.
00:50:36 And that's going to require some distinguishing,
00:50:39 some discerning. 0.99
00:50:41 Because it doesn't mean that Christians in this life
00:50:43 will reach a state of sinless perfection.
00:50:45 But it also means that Christians will not be slaves to sin.
00:50:49 And there is a difference between the two. 0.70
00:50:52 Number two, non-Christians belong to Satan and are deceived. 0.99
00:50:57 That's something we can know. 0.99
00:50:58 we can know that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. In what way is John using
00:51:03 the word world? I've got to define that so that once again, it's become a weekly duty to crush
00:51:09 dispensationalism. So I'm going to crush that and say, this is what I mean by world. It does not
00:51:15 mean necessarily the majority of human beings. But the world, that which is underneath the demonic
00:51:22 system, that Satan has some sense of dominion, even though he is now currently bound, that world
00:51:27 does lie in the power of satan and the word there actually can be translated lie it can be translated
00:51:32 some translations say lay they lie in the arms of satan and the picture is not that they're they're
00:51:39 being held by satan and they're frantic trying to escape but they're lying like an infant baby
00:51:44 peacefully in the arms of satan and the reason why they're peaceful is because they have affection
00:51:49 for satan because satan is their father because if you do not have god as your father according
00:51:54 to john chapter 8 your father is the devil and you love him and you lie in his arms and you are
00:52:01 deceived so we'll go into more detail about that we can know that christians are kept from sin 0.54
00:52:06 not sinless perfection but we are kept from slavery to sin we can know that non-christians
00:52:12 in contrast belong to satan and are deceived and thirdly and lastly we can know that christians
00:52:19 belong to Jesus and that we are not deceived, but that we have been given understanding. And that
00:52:25 one of the signs and seals and marks of a Christian is that the Christian knows and understands and
00:52:33 sees the truth. And as I did in the opening, our call to worship in my prayer this morning,
00:52:40 I pray that God would deliver us from despair. In a nutshell, I would say this. Unbelievers are
00:52:48 given to deception. Christians, according to scripture, according to this text, are not.
00:52:53 Again, that doesn't mean they'll have perfect theology. Doesn't mean they can't be wrong on 1.00
00:52:57 something. But on the whole, Christians are not deceived. Satan has two primary ministries.
00:53:05 With his own children, the unbelievers, Satan's ministry is a ministry of deception.
00:53:09 But for those who now see, have been given spiritual eyes to see, have been born again,
00:53:13 and our children of God, Satan's ministry is no longer chiefly a ministry of deception because
00:53:18 it won't work. So then he shifts to a ministry of despair. For the unbeliever, it is deception.
00:53:26 For the Christian, it's despair. That we know the truth. The Christian, for lack of a better 1.00
00:53:32 terminology, the Christian has taken the red pill. So what Satan loves to do is follow up the red 0.68
00:53:38 pill with a black pill the world is bad and it'll always be this way and there's nothing you can do
00:53:44 about it and that ministry of satan his despair is strong in the church these last 150 years
00:53:54 i'll let you figure out what happened 150 years ago schofield there you go
00:54:00 christianity it takes the red pill we call that total depravity doctrines of grace calvinism but
00:54:10 then it follows it up with a white pill we call that the post-millennial hope we're able to say
00:54:15 now people are bad i know people are bad i go to conferences entirely dedicated to the badness of
00:54:19 people i'm a calvinist things are rough but christ is greater he's the light of the world
00:54:29 and the darkness is not overcoming the light is advancing shout on pray on we're gaining ground
00:54:38 glory hallelujah and so we'll look at that the ministry of satan deception with his own the
00:54:43 unbeliever but seeking to cause despair with the christian he knows he can't deceive us
00:54:49 so instead he causes us to despair i'll probably pull in some pilgrim's progress john bunyan
00:54:55 Doubting Castle. The Christian, he knows the promises. And the whole time, here's the thing,
00:55:02 he's not deceived. He's not enslaved. He's not in prison. Not truly. The whole time, at any moment,
00:55:08 he could get out of the prison. But he has so been taught to despair by the giant in Doubting Castle.
00:55:18 Giant despair is his name. That he's forgotten that the entire time he has a key in his breast
00:55:25 plate pocket. The key is called promise. All he has to do is take it out and he can open the gate
00:55:33 to the prison and escape. Many Christians have the key. They're not deceived. They're not enslaved. 1.00
00:55:39 We have the key of promise in our pocket. But many Christians have not been deceived, but taught to
00:55:46 despair to such a degree that although the key is near our heart, we don't use it to break free
00:55:54 of the prison. We'll talk more about these things, like I said, two weeks from today. Next week,
00:56:01 one important announcement, we have Chris Wiley and Jared Longshore with us. We're going to have
00:56:06 our full day conference from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, November 11th, on the household and the
00:56:13 war for the cosmos. And then that Lord's Day, November 12th, I'll be doing the liturgy and
00:56:19 pastor jared longshore i will be preaching the sermon and so we hope that you guys will join us
00:56:25 for that if you have not registered for the conference just show up and we'll just see what
00:56:30 happens hopefully the weather's good and we can open up the doors and if not um it'll be a great
00:56:34 time but it'll feel kind of like christian and pilgrim's progress that we're we're trapped in
00:56:40 doubting castle it'll be it'll be uncomfortable but uh the content will be good all right let's
00:56:44 pray. Father, thank you for your word. Bless it to your people. For Christ's sake, amen.