The NXR Podcast - SUNDAY SERMON - For Those Doubting Their Salvation

00:00:00.000 Today, our text is going to be 1st John chapter 5, verse 18 through 21.

00:00:04.740 These are the final verses of John's first epistle, letter.

00:00:09.600 1st John chapter 5, verse 18 through 21.

00:00:12.360 Would you join me now in standing for the reading of God's Word?

00:00:15.200 When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say,

00:00:17.340 this is the Word of the Lord, at which point I would appreciate very much

00:00:20.180 if you would respond by saying, thanks be to God.

00:00:23.360 One final time, our text for today is 1st John chapter 5, verse 18 through 21.

00:00:28.960 the Bible says this, we know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning,

00:00:35.520 but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are

00:00:42.440 from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one, and we know that the Son of God

00:00:49.080 has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who

00:00:56.800 is true in his son Jesus Christ he is the true God and eternal life little children keep yourselves

00:01:05.440 from idols this is the word of the Lord all right please be seated let's go ahead and begin

00:01:11.720 by way of introduction I've written the following throughout first John this is a major theme that

00:01:16.980 you need to understand there is a massive emphasis on what we as Christians can know for certain

00:01:22.740 John writes multiple times here's a few examples by this we know that we have come to know him if

00:01:29.840 we keep his commandments we can know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments first

00:01:36.340 John 2 3 John writes to the fathers that is fathers in the faith those who are spiritually

00:01:41.860 mature because they know him who has been from the beginning that's first John chapter 2 verse 13

00:01:49.160 john writes to the children because they know the father that's first john 2 14 then john says

00:01:57.820 we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren that's first

00:02:04.860 john chapter 3 verse 14 we can know we've been born again we can know that we have been granted

00:02:11.400 eternal life if there's a condition we love the brethren that's not just loving your neighbor

00:02:18.540 but specifically your brother your brother and or sister in christ and at the conclusion now

00:02:27.740 of john's letter he drives home this theme of certainty again by saying these things i have

00:02:34.120 written to you who believe in the name of the son of god so that you may know that you have

00:02:41.260 eternal life that's first john chapter 5 a few verses earlier verse 13 now there's a striking

00:02:49.800 connection a correlation between the end of john's gospel and the end of john's first epistle

00:02:58.160 in john's gospel chapter 20 verse 30 he says this i had it the wind blew when i say wind i mean

00:03:07.920 artificial wind ac here we go john chapter 20 verse 30 now jesus did many other signs in the

00:03:18.460 presence of the disciples which are not written in this book but these are written so that you

00:03:24.820 may believe that jesus is the christ the son of god and that by believing you may have life

00:03:32.240 in his name. This is what John inspired by the Holy Spirit says at the very end or near the very

00:03:40.960 end of his gospel. He's saying these are all the signs and wonders and miracles which Jesus

00:03:47.540 performed in his earthly ministry. This is his life. This is his death. This is his bodily

00:03:53.880 resurrection. This is his glorious ascension to the right hand of the Father. His appearance to

00:04:00.400 over 500 witnesses, eyewitnesses, after his resurrection. This is the testimony of Jesus

00:04:07.240 Christ. All that he did, all that he said, his promises are sure. And he has fulfilled

00:04:14.580 all of these prophecies, messianic prophecies, spoken by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the prophets

00:04:22.460 of old. And these things have not just been committed to the oral tradition, but rather

00:04:28.440 written down so that you might believe so the gospel of john it's pinning being inspired by

00:04:37.640 the holy spirit was for many purposes but we can argue a chief purpose is so that future disciples

00:04:45.400 of jesus might believe that you might believe that jesus is the son of god that he is the christ

00:04:52.480 the anointed one the promised messiah however similar but with one major distinction what john

00:05:01.880 writes at the end of his first epistle is these things have been written not just that you might

00:05:07.640 believe but these things have been written to you who believe in the name of the son of god

00:05:13.780 so that you might know that you have eternal life to summon up in short at the end of john's

00:05:22.140 gospel he says i've written these things so that you might believe but at the end of his first

00:05:27.780 epistle which was written later he says these things have been written so that you might know

00:05:34.740 that you believe brothers and sisters there is a connection and yet also a strong distinction

00:05:43.600 a massive difference between believing in jesus and knowing that you believe in jesus the difference

00:05:52.720 is the difference between salvation and the assurance of salvation that's the difference

00:06:00.900 that we're going to be looking at today there is a distinction between salvation and the assurance

00:06:08.220 of salvation a man can have salvation and yet have little assurance

00:06:14.580 it's quite possible it is quite possible for someone to have genuine bona fide salvation

00:06:23.560 by grace through faith in christ alone and yet possess little certainty confidence or assurance

00:06:32.560 that he has salvation it is also quite possible for a man to possess an abundance of assurance

00:06:39.980 of salvation but for that in the end to prove to be a false assurance that he is assured of

00:06:48.140 a salvation that he does not actually possess so you can have assurance of salvation without having

00:06:54.860 salvation which is terribly frightening and you can have salvation that is genuine and true but

00:07:01.760 without having much assurance and john between his gospel and his first epistle again inspired

00:07:10.000 by the holy spirit so deeper than just john god wants us as his children to not only possess

00:07:18.780 salvation to be his children but also to be assured children confident children certain

00:07:27.560 children that we are not sitting in a field surrounded by flowers picking the petals

00:07:35.060 saying god loves me he loves me not he loves me he loves me not but that we would able to

00:07:42.360 be able to say with confidence not confidence in ourselves or confidence in the flesh

00:07:47.680 but confidence in christ he loves me and that that would be the end of the story

00:07:53.280 And this is one of the great differences between Roman Catholicism and the Protestant Reformation.

00:08:04.820 The Protestant Reformation, the reformers argued that a man can indeed have assurance that he belongs to Christ in this life.

00:08:17.360 that he doesn't have to lie on his deathbed wondering whether or not he's truly been born

00:08:24.060 again wondering what his final destination might be but that he can rest with assurance and

00:08:31.780 confidence that he belongs to christ now notice one other thing before we move on

00:08:38.480 every single time that john writes in his first epistle that you might know that you might know

00:08:46.780 that you might know in every one of these cases he cites something that is objective

00:08:53.940 as the condition for knowing it's not subjective this is where i think unfortunately some

00:09:01.800 protestants have gone too far so don't get me wrong it's way too close to october 31st

00:09:09.160 for me to say anything good about roman catholicism and yet at the risk of saying

00:09:17.880 something good about roman catholicism the one nice thing that rome did there are a few

00:09:24.820 but i'll name one the one nice thing that rome did is that they made some tangible touch points

00:09:34.080 handles that can be held on to when it comes to the faith now the problem is that the handles

00:09:43.060 they provided these objective signs and seals that they provided did not have scriptural root

00:09:49.120 that was the problem but again at the risk of now forfeiting my protestant card

00:09:58.500 I think that Protestants placed too much emphasis on the subjective inward feelings of assurance

00:10:07.820 and not enough emphasis on outward objective signs and seals of assurance.

00:10:17.040 What I'm saying is that within Roman Catholicism, you have seven sacraments. 0.61

00:10:22.860 Protestants, we have two. Protestants are right. 1.00

00:10:24.780 you have seven sacraments but here's the idea with with a roman catholic 0.99

00:10:30.620 you get baptized in the church and they would hold to baptismal regeneration so it would take 1.00

00:10:36.960 you from mortal sins and put you on the right track and that inevitably you're going to fall

00:10:41.460 and so you're going to need to be rewashed and set back on the right track again and again but

00:10:45.880 it would start with your baptism as an infant as a baby baptismal regeneration they actually

00:10:51.460 believe that baptism saves in the literal sense. So it causes the person to be born again. So

00:10:57.440 baptism, that is a sacrament. And after that, you would have confirmation. That would be another

00:11:02.920 sacrament. At that point, you would begin participating in the Eucharist, the mass,

00:11:08.540 the Eucharist, which would include both the bread and also the wine transubstantiation, 0.75

00:11:13.500 literally turned into the flesh and the blood of Christ, which is wrong. But that would be

00:11:18.980 another sacrament. They believe that grace is infused, not imputed, that is accredited, accounted

00:11:25.280 for righteousness through faith alone, like the scripture says of Abraham, but rather infused.

00:11:31.220 And it's infused, grace is infused through sacraments. And in other cases, perhaps relics

00:11:36.940 and rituals, but certainly sacraments and certainly baptism and the Eucharist. So you have baptism,

00:11:45.380 then confirmation, then the Eucharist.

00:11:47.320 Then you have confession, which would also be a sacrament.

00:11:51.360 That you would go periodically before the priest

00:11:54.200 in a confessional booth.

00:11:56.480 Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.

00:11:58.500 It has been this long since my last confession.

00:12:01.660 You would then begin to recount the sins

00:12:03.680 that you have committed against God and your fellow man.

00:12:06.580 The priest would then prescribe to you

00:12:08.420 some form of penance, which is distinct from repentance.

00:12:12.300 this many our fathers this many hail marys if you perform these outward objective signs

00:12:20.300 if you do what the priest says then again you have handles that you can hold on to

00:12:26.080 so you have confession as a sacrament marriage would also be a sacrament according to roman

00:12:32.740 catholicism not within the protestant faith again we have two baptism in the lord's supper

00:12:38.720 But you make sure that you're baptized in a Catholic church.

00:12:41.740 You make sure you get married in a Catholic church.

00:12:44.480 You make sure you're confirmed in a Catholic church.

00:12:47.500 That you go and you confess your sin to a Catholic priest from time to time.

00:12:52.140 You take the Mass in a Catholic church.

00:12:55.200 And you have your last rites read to you on your deathbed by a Catholic priest.

00:13:01.400 And the seventh sacrament would be, in the case of the priesthood, becoming a priest.

00:13:06.480 Ordination.

00:13:06.920 there are handles very objective outward signs and seals there's something there

00:13:13.140 and protestants unfortunately a lot of the assurance that we rest in ironically is feelings

00:13:21.580 that you feel saved that you feel the love of god that you feel christ's work is for you

00:13:28.460 but when you read john's epistle his first epistle that's just not the way it reads

00:13:34.560 and so and being faithful to the true protestant tradition i'm going to go with scripture alone

00:13:43.820 and not mere traditions whether they be roman traditions or protestant traditions

00:13:48.940 for that matter but there's scripture alone and in the scripture john inspired by the holy spirit

00:13:56.160 says again and again and again and again you can know you can know you can know and then he gives

00:14:02.400 very tangible outward objective signs you can know that you're a christian if you love the saints

00:14:11.800 you can know you're a christian if you obey christ's commandments and you can know you're

00:14:19.700 a christian if you have both a biblical and personal confession of christ every single one

00:14:28.820 of John's spiritual test that you find in 1 John can be categorized in one of those three primary

00:14:35.720 categories. The love test, the obedience test, and the doctrinal test. You might call it the truth

00:14:43.820 test. Love, obedience, and truth. The love test is love for the saints. It's not just love for your

00:14:52.960 neighbor but love for your brother it's important for us to remember that we have a universal

00:15:00.400 neighborhood what i mean by that is all 8.2 8.3 whatever it is billion people on the planet right

00:15:07.740 now they are all our neighbors they are not all our brothers the bible teaches when it comes to

00:15:15.800 humanity a universal neighborhood that stems from the universal creatorhood of god god is universal

00:15:24.500 creator there's not one person that god is not their creator and there's not one person that

00:15:30.800 is not our neighbor but the bible while teaching universal creatorhood of god and neighborhood of

00:15:37.600 humanity the bible teaches particular fatherhood and particular brotherhood god is creator of all

00:15:46.000 but father of some and everyone is my neighbor and but not everyone is my brother

00:15:54.700 and john is actually just echoing the words of jesus christ himself who taught

00:16:02.100 that whatever you do for the least of these here's the key phrase my brothers you have done for me

00:16:11.700 we have so taken the words of christ in that particular place out of context we say whatever

00:16:20.940 you do for the least of these you've done for jesus so how do you love jesus who is at the

00:16:26.440 right hand of God the Father. How do I love Christ? Well, I can't go to heaven, not now.

00:16:34.940 But the way that I can feed Christ is I can feed the least of these. I can clothe Christ

00:16:40.660 by clothing the least of these. I can visit Christ when he's oppressed and imprisoned

00:16:45.720 by visiting these. That's what Jesus says, that if you even give a cup of cold water to one of

00:16:53.580 these little ones in my name, you've done it for me. How do you love Jesus? Well, you love the least

00:17:01.780 of these. But again, the key phrase is the least of these, my brothers. We've taken that out of

00:17:09.180 context because what we've done with evangelical Protestant churches today is we've just said the

00:17:15.660 least of these, and we've removed that phrase, my brothers. And then we think that it's our own

00:17:22.460 decision that we have our own creative license and authority to determine who are the least of 1.00

00:17:29.280 these in society today and so we'll say well the least of these are lgbt community and i would say 1.00

00:17:38.520 well no it's the least of these my brothers these people are living in impenitent sin 1.00

00:17:44.140 therefore there is no sign that they are brothers secondly even by the standard of neighbors these

00:17:50.900 are not the least of these. These would be equivalent to princes and kings. There is no

00:17:55.680 higher status you could have in our God-hating society today than being LGBT. They're not 0.99

00:18:01.800 oppressed. Three percent of the population is oppressing 97 percent. These are not the least

00:18:10.800 of these by any metric of being the least of these, much less a biblical metric. So let's go

00:18:17.440 ahead and remove that one. Well, maybe the least of these isn't, you know, LGBT, LMNOP, whatever,

00:18:23.920 but maybe the least of these are immigrants. We've heard that one. 0.99

00:18:30.740 Maybe it's immigrants. I mean, they have no rights. What do you mean? 1.00

00:18:37.780 They do have rights. Our taxes go to them, whether they do anything or not.

00:18:44.420 they're given checks they're paid

00:18:50.960 in some places they can vote depending on that city and that county

00:18:57.380 no no they're not the least of these and that's again is by a universal neighborhood standard

00:19:07.000 but again that's not the biblical standard whatever you do for the least of these

00:19:11.300 my brothers. When Jesus says, whatever you do for the least of these, my brothers, the person who's

00:19:16.480 imprisoned, you know who he's talking about? The person who's imprisoned as a Christian for preaching 0.99

00:19:21.180 the gospel. The person who's wrongfully imprisoned. When you clothe those who are naked, my brothers,

00:19:28.520 he's talking about Christians who have been plundered and robbed and persecuted for their

00:19:33.460 faith in Christ. Those who are hungry, who are Christians. The one who welcomes a prophet

00:19:38.980 receives a prophet's reward.

00:19:42.040 The one who welcomes an evangelist,

00:19:44.900 a missionary receives a missionary

00:19:46.820 or an evangelist's reward.

00:19:49.260 What we see again and again in Scripture is this.

00:19:52.580 We are called to love everyone as our neighbor,

00:19:54.960 but there is an order of loves.

00:19:58.980 There is an order of rightly ordered affections.

00:20:05.220 We are called to love some more than others.

00:20:08.980 a man is called to love his wife more than other women he is called to love his children more than

00:20:16.120 his neighbor's children and as christians we are called to love the household of faith

00:20:21.920 as a priority above all others who are outside of the faith galatians chapter 6 to cite more

00:20:30.200 scripture the apostle paul he says this as often as you have opportunity do good to all

00:20:35.580 but especially the household of faith that is but prioritize the household of faith christ who is

00:20:42.940 god and therefore infinite works through his body the church which is finite christ is infinite but

00:20:50.900 the church here on earth the body of christ is not infinite the church is finite it has a set

00:20:57.520 amount of people at any given point with a set amount of resources a set amount of gifts and

00:21:02.840 talents and treasure and therefore because the church is not infinite but finite as all finite

00:21:09.420 creatures must do we have to learn when to say yes and when to say no we have to learn what to

00:21:17.200 prioritize who to prioritize and what to guard against as often as you have opportunity do good

00:21:27.980 all but especially the household of faith that is prioritize the least of these my brothers

00:21:36.980 the church so john gives three major tests for not just being saved but here's the key

00:21:46.840 knowing that you're saved the gospel of john i write to you that you might believe

00:21:52.720 the first epistle of john i write to you that you might know that you have believed there's a

00:21:59.480 distinction between salvation and assurance of salvation and in this category of the assurance

00:22:04.980 of salvation throughout the entirety of first john three main tests are listed the love test

00:22:12.560 that's what i've been espousing these last seven minutes love for the household of faith love for

00:22:20.080 the brothers. Love for Christians. The obedience test, obedience to Christ's commandments,

00:22:30.160 beginning with the moral law of God, which we find in its summary in Exodus chapter 20,

00:22:37.340 the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments. Love for God and neighbor, not creatively defined by you,

00:22:44.380 but immutably defined by God in Scripture.

00:22:49.340 Love for God.

00:22:50.820 Have no other gods before me.

00:22:52.840 Do not make for yourself any graven images.

00:22:55.560 Do not take the Lord's name in vain

00:22:57.380 and remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

00:23:01.240 Love for neighbor

00:23:02.100 and particularly fellow brothers in Christ.

00:23:07.520 Honor thy father and mother.

00:23:09.400 Do not murder.

00:23:10.540 Do not commit adultery.

00:23:12.180 Do not steal.

00:23:14.380 do not bear false witness, and do not covet. This is how we love our neighbor. The first

00:23:21.960 four commandments teach us how we love the Lord our God. So the obedience test, obedience to

00:23:28.880 the moral commands of God. As we grow in outward obedience, it's tangible, it's objective,

00:23:36.020 it can be witnessed, not just by you. Here's the beauty. Not just by you, but it can be

00:23:42.440 co-discerned as we grow in obedience and our outward obedience to the commands of god

00:23:47.800 is witnessed by others namely again the household of faith so that i can have others not just myself

00:23:55.160 not just dependent on my own subjective fleeting feelings of confidence and assurance and the love

00:24:00.920 of god for me but i can look when i'm lacking assurance to my wife to my parents to my friends

00:24:08.940 to my church and they can say brother you're lacking in assurance right now i understand

00:24:13.760 you've confessed that to us that you're struggling with insecurity and fear doubting the love of god

00:24:19.120 but this is what we've seen this is what we've heard this is what we know and you should know

00:24:27.280 as well the love test do you love your neighbor and more particularly in first john do you love

00:24:34.480 your brother the obedience test are you outwardly tangibly obeying the commandments of God

00:24:41.480 and lastly the truth test or the doctrinal test do you have a proper confession of faith

00:24:49.920 do you have a proper confession of faith in Christ and a proper confession I would say

00:24:56.720 two main elements for it to be proper it must be a biblical confession and it also must be a

00:25:04.200 personal confession biblical and personal biblical we see in first john anyone who confesses that

00:25:13.340 christ has come in the flesh or stated in the negative he says anyone who does not confess

00:25:19.680 that christ has come in the flesh is the antichrist or an antichrist many antichrists

00:25:26.680 have gone out into the world and one of the ways that you can know them

00:25:30.340 is that they deny that Christ has come in the flesh they deny the incarnation and that might

00:25:39.180 seem so general as though it's not specific enough but there is much that inherently comes

00:25:46.120 with that one statement of Christ coming in the flesh one of the things that comes with it is

00:25:50.780 it presupposes it assumes that Christ existed before his incarnation before he came in the flesh

00:25:59.280 meaning what it assumes by necessary inference that christ has come in the flesh that he pre-existed

00:26:08.440 before coming in the flesh that he is eternal that he is god and not only that he is god before the

00:26:15.040 flesh but he is the god man fully god fully man that statement includes with it the hypostatic

00:26:24.420 union that he is the second member of the trinity it includes the incarnation it includes his deity

00:26:30.360 it includes a lot so you must have a biblical confession of christ but also a personal

00:26:37.200 confession for this i'll reference galatians again the apostle paul

00:26:43.300 he says i know this i'm confident of it that christ loved me and gave himself up for me

00:26:54.420 brothers and sisters the biblical confession is absolutely vital but it is not sufficient in and

00:27:01.840 of itself it must be a biblical confession of christ that is what you confess about jesus

00:27:07.440 aligns with the scripture it's not build a jesus right build a bear remember that store in the

00:27:12.880 mall you go and i'll take a little bit of this a little bit of that we're going to make our own

00:27:16.060 custom teddy bear right a lot of churches a lot of evangelicals are playing build a jesus on sunday

00:27:21.780 all right some people like hippie jesus all right he hugs trees he's got dreadlocks

00:27:29.160 he's really concerned with world peace and he wouldn't hurt a fly

00:27:33.760 everybody's got a different jesus i'm not i'm not endorsing this okay so do not take me out

00:27:41.440 of context don't go home and watch this movie but once upon a time because i too am a sinner

00:27:45.900 i watched all day good nights all right there we go some confession we're confessing our sin to the

00:27:50.620 Lord. We've already heard the assurance of pardon. There's forgiveness in Christ. But I did. I

00:27:57.280 confess. I have once upon a time watched Talladega Nights. Ricky Bobby. All right. Two first names.

00:28:03.880 There's a scene in that movie where they're going back and forth arguing about which Jesus is best.

00:28:09.720 Well, I like the, you know, the figure skating Jesus. You know, I like my Jesus to be like a

00:28:14.640 lead singer of Led Zeppelin. I'm sitting on the front row and they say some other things.

00:28:19.140 or i like my jesus to be the baby jesus you know little deer little eight pounds six

00:28:24.380 and it's a blasphemous scene don't get me wrong it's terrible

00:28:27.060 however here's the saddest part it's not just sad that you know will ferrell who is pretty

00:28:33.540 funny is blaspheming christ in this movie for millions of people to watch the saddest part

00:28:38.540 is that it is almost synonymous with what evangelical churches do on sunday morning

00:28:44.800 at least will ferrell meant it as a joke at least he recognized that you know this is laughable

00:28:53.500 whereas a bunch of evangelical pastors they do it and they are completely serious

00:28:58.780 well we like our jesus to be like this we like our jesus to be like and and the jesus that they

00:29:05.000 begin to describe in their 20 minute ted talk sermon has nothing to do with the jesus of

00:29:10.520 scripture so first and foremost the truth test it must be a biblical profession a biblical

00:29:17.480 confession of jesus but secondly in line with the apostle paul in the book of galatians his letter

00:29:23.920 to the galatians it must also be a personal confession of jesus what i mean is this it is

00:29:28.800 not enough to confess that christ came in the flesh and died for someone somewhere out there

00:29:33.980 but you must be able to echo the words of the apostle paul and saying i am convinced that

00:29:39.280 Christ loved me and gave himself up for me so our confession must be biblical and personal

00:29:48.200 three tests of assurance but notice all of them tangible tests objective outward witnessable

00:29:58.520 the test of love and when John begins to spell out the test of love he's thinking about the

00:30:06.860 words of christ and he's also thinking of james and what james says about love do not just merely

00:30:14.100 say to your brother be warm and well fed but give him nothing and send him on his way

00:30:18.700 james echoing christ as well says this is what love looks like love can be witnessed

00:30:26.800 love is visible what does love look like it looks like cash a lot of times

00:30:34.360 what does love look like it looks like clothes it looks like water it looks like food it looks like

00:30:42.940 a visit to prison this is what love looks like love can be witnessed love is tangible it is not

00:30:51.820 a mere theoretical love it is a love indeed it is a love in function in practice there's a particular

00:31:00.800 object of love, if the object ultimately is Christ, then the object on the horizontal plane

00:31:07.200 in the life that we live here and now is the people of Christ. So how do I know that I love

00:31:12.980 Jesus? I love the people of Jesus. And how do I love them? Not just who do I love, but how do I

00:31:19.660 love? I love them in tangible ways. I love them in deed and in action and not merely word or in

00:31:29.380 theory the love test the obedience test how do i know that i love god i that's what was said to

00:31:38.620 jesus his disciples we love you if you love me keep my commandments tangible witnessable outward

00:31:49.480 obedience to both tables of the law the first four commandments love for god the next six of

00:31:58.640 the Ten Commandments, love for neighbor, with a priority on love for brothers. Love test,

00:32:07.580 obedience test, truth test, a profession of Christ. Notice, perfect doctrine is not what I'm speaking

00:32:16.100 of. No one has it. Not in this life. I don't. But understanding the doctrine of Christ and the

00:32:27.100 salvation that he freely offers by grace through faith in him alone the person and work this is

00:32:34.500 what i'm speaking of the person and work of jesus have you ever heard that phrase

00:32:39.200 trusting in the person and work of jesus this is what that phrase means in its simplicity

00:32:44.380 right because there's a lot of things that get thrown around platitudes and sometimes

00:32:48.280 you know we'll go 50 years without something being defined and everybody's doing the what

00:32:53.020 but they've forgotten the why.

00:32:54.660 And then all of a sudden the church

00:32:55.880 begins to slide and compromise

00:32:57.540 because we stopped teaching the why.

00:33:00.980 And we get mad about the laser lights

00:33:02.740 and the smoke machines, you know, in Sunday worship.

00:33:05.320 But pastors a long time ago,

00:33:07.660 long before the smoke machines

00:33:09.140 made their way into the Sunday service,

00:33:11.300 pastors were going through the liturgy

00:33:12.680 but not explaining to the congregants why they did so.

00:33:16.300 And their children forgot.

00:33:17.960 And their children began to reject.

00:33:21.040 They began to kick against the goats.

00:33:22.720 and they thought they were doing it

00:33:23.940 even in a passion and zeal for Christ. 0.97

00:33:27.240 Because it just seemed like the traditions of men

00:33:29.540 because the traditions had no longer been explained.

00:33:33.200 So what's the person and work of Jesus Christ?

00:33:35.820 In simplicity, the person speaks to the fact

00:33:39.040 that he is the God-man.

00:33:40.440 So when we say trusting in the person and work of Jesus,

00:33:42.780 we're saying we trust that Jesus is fully God, fully man.

00:33:46.300 We're speaking of the incarnation.

00:33:47.980 We're speaking of his deity and his humanity.

00:33:50.540 We're speaking that he is eternal.

00:33:52.720 that he's eternally begotten, not made.

00:33:56.660 Jesus is not the first among creatures,

00:33:59.100 but he is the creator who is to be forever praised.

00:34:02.580 Amen.

00:34:03.360 That for him and by him and through him,

00:34:05.440 all things that have been made were made.

00:34:08.000 And in him, all things that have been made

00:34:10.040 are being held together.

00:34:12.440 Hebrews 1 says this.

00:34:14.000 Colossians says this.

00:34:16.220 Jesus is God, creator God, eternal God,

00:34:20.160 second member of the Godhead.

00:34:22.720 but he is also man, not partially man, but fully man, so that he is able to represent man.

00:34:32.780 In his godness, he could pay the infinite penalty of the sins of his people. In his manness, he is

00:34:43.520 able to accurately represent people, fully God and fully man, and he is forever the God-man.

00:34:52.720 Still, in now, the glorified human flesh

00:34:56.260 at the right hand of the Father,

00:34:58.520 resurrected, not just revived,

00:35:00.740 but truly resurrected and glorified

00:35:03.540 as a first fruits of what all those who trust in Him

00:35:06.900 will one day receive.

00:35:09.380 The glorification and resurrection of our own bodies,

00:35:13.420 these bodies, not new bodies meaning another body,

00:35:17.280 but new bodies meaning this body made new.

00:35:20.120 and i believe the same doctrinally for this earth for that matter not annihilated disintegrated

00:35:27.640 and burned up in a literal sense but this world made new that all creation cries out with groans

00:35:37.200 and eager expectations for the sons of god to be revealed for in their restoration the cosmos will

00:35:43.480 be restored as well that the creation is not crying out with eager groans and expectations

00:35:48.500 for a mercy killing to be taken out back behind the woodshed and put down by god so that the sons

00:35:55.200 of god can now replace the creation but rather as the sons of god are restored and renewed so too

00:36:01.560 mountains and rivers and trees will be renewed as well that we will live in heaven with god but one

00:36:10.420 day at the final culmination of human history that the new heavens will come to this earth made new

00:36:17.820 and that we will see things

00:36:19.780 that are strikingly familiar to us,

00:36:23.860 but now glorify.

00:36:25.640 I know that mountain range,

00:36:27.760 but it never looked like that.

00:36:30.340 Now I see it in its true majesty.

00:36:33.400 I know this river.

00:36:34.480 I used to fish in it when I was a kid.

00:36:36.300 Now look at it.

00:36:43.640 Jesus is the God-man,

00:36:45.980 the person of Jesus.

00:36:47.820 His work, life, sinless, and not only an absence of sin, but a presence and fulfillment of all

00:36:56.320 righteousness. Not only avoiding sin, but obeying all the commandments of God, his Father.

00:37:05.220 This is what Jesus says to John the Baptist. When John says, I can't baptize you. I'm not worthy.

00:37:10.900 And Jesus says, you must, to fulfill all righteousness.

00:37:16.760 It is not only Jesus' passive obedience,

00:37:19.280 his willingness to die as a substitute on the cross for you and die,

00:37:22.800 but also his active obedience, as John Owen and the Reformers would argue,

00:37:27.340 that he actively obeyed and fulfilled all the commandments of God in his life.

00:37:32.900 Not only was his death obedience to God, but he lived a life of obedience.

00:37:38.080 So his life, his death, and his death not as a mere example of sacrificial love,

00:37:44.940 but his life as payment, atonement, propitiation, as penal substitutionary atonement.

00:37:52.540 He died as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

00:37:56.320 He died in our place.

00:37:58.020 His resurrection, not as a mere metaphor,

00:38:01.560 speaking to the power and the triumph of the human spirit,

00:38:04.520 but his literal bodily resurrection from the dead and his ascension in glory and majesty and power

00:38:14.120 and authority that he is raised before people's very eyes and then hidden behind the clouds as

00:38:21.920 he enters into heaven to be seated to sit down at his father's right hand and right before he does

00:38:29.780 this, he says, all authority, not just in the 17th dimension, but on earth and in heaven has been

00:38:36.200 given to me. So you will go in obedience to my commands, making disciples, and you will be

00:38:42.500 successful. And you will disciple nations. And in discipling them, you will not only preach the

00:38:48.700 gospel for conversion and their baptism, but then you will teach them theonomy to obey all my

00:38:55.280 commands and this is not separate but included in the great commission this is the work of jesus

00:39:03.600 and the work which he still does that he intercedes on our behalf is praying for his own

00:39:10.620 and promises one day to finally and physically return the person and work of jesus who he is

00:39:19.400 the God-man. What he's done? Life, death, resurrection, ascension, and promised return.

00:39:24.700 This is the person and work of Jesus. This is the truth test. Do you believe the truth

00:39:29.740 in these issues? You can be wrong about other things. We should strive to be right in all things,

00:39:37.060 to believe the sufficiency of Scripture in all things, not only sola scriptura, but tota scriptura,

00:39:44.000 not just some of Scripture, not just red-letter Scripture, but all of Scripture, which is part

00:39:48.780 of the problem in the evangelical protestant church today we believe what jesus says about

00:39:54.240 salvation but little about what the bible says for life in this in this time

00:40:00.900 we think that the bible speaks to marriage and family and the church and eternal life but

00:40:07.540 certainly it has nothing to say about culture society the civil realm oh but it does and those

00:40:15.280 things matter but what must be there those things matter don't get me wrong but you could be wrong

00:40:22.620 on some of those issues but what must be there is rightly biblically accurately professing the

00:40:29.860 person and work of jesus and not only a biblical profession but also a personal confession this

00:40:38.300 Jesus did not just give himself up for someone somewhere out there but he died for me the love

00:40:48.280 test the obedience test and the truth test by this you might know you might know and not just

00:40:57.140 you others can know because all of these things are tangible a profession is something that you

00:41:03.920 confess with your mouth you must believe in your heart but also confess with your mouth and we do

00:41:10.460 it every lord's day we confess both the person and work of jesus in the creeds each lord's day

00:41:19.200 and we do it not only privately but publicly corporately with one another

00:41:24.140 obedience to christ's commands is something that has physical outward witnessable implications

00:41:32.920 Your wife will be able to tell you

00:41:35.540 whether or not you are obeying Christ's commands.

00:41:38.740 And she will helpfully remind you

00:41:42.000 when you are not, most likely.

00:41:43.900 And hopefully do so in a respectful manner.

00:41:46.460 But also do so.

00:41:49.760 And love, as Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount,

00:41:53.100 as James says, as Paul says, as John says,

00:41:58.160 love for the brothers is a tangible love indeed and not mere word or theory

00:42:04.340 and all these ways we can know that we belong to christ now notice the ways you

00:42:12.000 know you belong to christ is not by eating the literal flesh and drinking the literal

00:42:16.560 blood of jesus and a roman catholic church

00:42:19.100 and it's not by having a priest come and read you your last rites on your deathbed 0.88

00:42:27.160 it's not through confirmation it's not through their joke of a baptism

00:42:32.520 and i don't mean it's a joke because they do it with babies i'm saying it's a joke because

00:42:37.740 they believe that it literally causes you to be born again baptismal regeneration

00:42:41.900 and i'll throw lutherans in there for good measure just to be fair

00:42:47.160 no this is not how grace is imputed or as rome would say infused

00:42:56.620 but there are ways in which grace not is imputed it is imputed by grace through faith in christ

00:43:04.260 alone but there are ways in which grace that is imputed by faith alone can be seen

00:43:10.220 it can be confirmed so that you can be confident and know that you belong to christ god is a father

00:43:20.540 And it is not the will of our loving heavenly father

00:43:26.080 that his children should think on a regular basis

00:43:30.340 that their father does not love them.

00:43:34.940 It is not the will of God that his children

00:43:38.220 should constantly be tossing and turning,

00:43:42.680 unsure of whether or not God loves them,

00:43:46.340 will keep them, has saved them.

00:43:50.540 and we can know now this knowledge assurance one more thing that should be added it is not a pass

00:43:57.640 fail system it doesn't work like that assurance of salvation is not something that a switch is

00:44:07.500 flipped to where you have 100 assurance or zero percent assurance assurance assurance instead

00:44:16.520 can fluctuate you can have less and at times you can have more now again that's not the goal it's

00:44:26.920 the very thing that john is writing against but assurance does fluctuate

00:44:32.340 especially in times of living in unrepentant sin

00:44:38.180 so that you may actually be a christian and actually possess salvation be saved by genuine

00:44:47.960 grace through genuine faith in christ alone but for whatever reason you've been sinning

00:44:55.880 and hiding your sin not confessing your sin one to another that you might pray for one another

00:45:02.600 that you might be healed.

00:45:04.320 And therefore, although your salvation is not lost

00:45:07.400 because you did nothing to earn it,

00:45:09.400 you can do nothing to lose it.

00:45:11.180 And yet in the subjective sense of feeling salvation,

00:45:16.140 the knowing of salvation, the assurance of salvation,

00:45:19.480 the assurance can wane.

00:45:21.940 The salvation is pass fail.

00:45:24.660 Let me make this plain.

00:45:25.960 Salvation itself is all or nothing.

00:45:28.500 a man either stands wholly justified before christ or wholly condemned there is no partial

00:45:35.460 justification there is no partial salvation and once you have been granted salvation

00:45:41.660 you cannot lose that which you did not earn you will be secure in christ but what you can

00:45:50.160 lose or at least decrease in is confidence of salvation assurance of salvation

00:45:58.320 the puritans called this god's fatherly so it's for the christian who god is their father his

00:46:06.880 fatherly displeasure there is such a thing as having god as your enemy as for the unbeliever

00:46:14.700 but there is another thing as being an adopted child of god and yet knowing in some sense he's

00:46:21.640 your father but being underneath his fatherly displeasure for a time for a season because of

00:46:27.340 unrepentant sin almost all of the time that's the reason and therefore during this season

00:46:32.720 being weighed down heavy david says this as a christian heavy was your hand upon me

00:46:40.760 we see that there are people in the scripture who were born again that have seasons where

00:46:47.680 the weight of god's conviction and his displeasure fatherly albeit but displeasure

00:46:54.140 fatherly displeasure is upon an individual and during those moments they toss and turn in their

00:47:00.000 beds often fasting and going without food there's no sense of peace no sense of comfort

00:47:06.740 the christian can have a lack of assurance

00:47:10.240 but the christian can also have increased assurance and this increased assurance comes

00:47:19.360 by christ's work through you now listen this is where the objection will come

00:47:23.560 from protestants they'll say well you're making assurance of salvation about the work of man

00:47:30.380 you're saying that if you're more obedient you can be more assured that's right i'm saying that

00:47:35.880 that's right but here's the deal it is all christ work justification i can say it most

00:47:44.500 simply like this justification is christ's work for you sanctification is christ's work through

00:47:50.340 you but it's still christ's work good works which he predestined for us to walk in work out your

00:47:59.700 salvation with fear and trembling knowing that it is he who wills and works in and through you that

00:48:04.540 which is good and pleasing in his sight justification salvation itself is christ's work for you

00:48:11.100 but sanctification growing in love for the saints growing in obedience to christ's commands

00:48:18.580 and having a biblical and personal confession,

00:48:21.380 a doctrine that is true.

00:48:23.500 Sanctification is Christ's work through you.

00:48:27.180 So that it's all grace, it's all Christ's work.

00:48:31.040 But we must be able to distinguish between the two.

00:48:33.900 It is the prerogative and the sole duty of a theologian

00:48:36.980 to make distinctions.

00:48:39.900 One God, three persons.

00:48:43.020 Distinguishing between essence and personhood.

00:48:45.300 we don't divorce but we also don't mix and blend we distinguish so too when it comes to

00:48:55.680 justification salvation itself and sanctification passing these three tests that john gives us

00:49:03.340 in his first epistle that we might know the assurance of salvation these two things are

00:49:08.740 distinct connected certainly but distinguishable nonetheless justification from sanctification

00:49:16.400 justification christ work for you sanctification christ work in and through you and as christ work

00:49:24.860 in and through you grows and is tangible not just a work in theory but a work that can be

00:49:32.840 witnessed and seen by you and others, you should grow in assurance. And if for whatever reason

00:49:42.600 you choose to live in a prolonged season of unrepentant sin so that obedience begins to wane,

00:49:51.180 sanctification seems to stall and stagnate, Christ's work through you seems as though

00:49:58.740 it is minimal then in those seasons you should have less assurance you should

00:50:06.020 all right that's the introduction we'll pick it up later huh i guess there you go

00:50:14.600 so yeah we'll pick it up this is what i want to do next not next week two weeks from now

00:50:20.220 in our text today john uses the word no three more times at the beginning of verses 18 19 and 20

00:50:28.740 What we see is this from our text.

00:50:30.520 Christians are kept from sin.

00:50:33.060 We can know that we'll be kept from sin.

00:50:36.000 And that's going to require some distinguishing,

00:50:39.180 some discerning. 0.99

00:50:41.380 Because it doesn't mean that Christians in this life

00:50:43.380 will reach a state of sinless perfection.

00:50:45.700 But it also means that Christians will not be slaves to sin.

00:50:49.920 And there is a difference between the two. 0.70

00:50:52.300 Number two, non-Christians belong to Satan and are deceived. 0.99

00:50:57.140 That's something we can know. 0.99

00:50:58.480 we can know that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. In what way is John using

00:51:03.160 the word world? I've got to define that so that once again, it's become a weekly duty to crush

00:51:09.460 dispensationalism. So I'm going to crush that and say, this is what I mean by world. It does not

00:51:15.540 mean necessarily the majority of human beings. But the world, that which is underneath the demonic

00:51:22.080 system, that Satan has some sense of dominion, even though he is now currently bound, that world

00:51:27.500 does lie in the power of satan and the word there actually can be translated lie it can be translated

00:51:32.760 some translations say lay they lie in the arms of satan and the picture is not that they're they're

00:51:39.660 being held by satan and they're frantic trying to escape but they're lying like an infant baby

00:51:44.360 peacefully in the arms of satan and the reason why they're peaceful is because they have affection

00:51:49.000 for satan because satan is their father because if you do not have god as your father according

00:51:54.700 to john chapter 8 your father is the devil and you love him and you lie in his arms and you are

00:52:01.900 deceived so we'll go into more detail about that we can know that christians are kept from sin 0.54

00:52:06.180 not sinless perfection but we are kept from slavery to sin we can know that non-christians

00:52:12.940 in contrast belong to satan and are deceived and thirdly and lastly we can know that christians

00:52:19.760 belong to Jesus and that we are not deceived, but that we have been given understanding. And that

00:52:25.220 one of the signs and seals and marks of a Christian is that the Christian knows and understands and

00:52:33.260 sees the truth. And as I did in the opening, our call to worship in my prayer this morning,

00:52:40.760 I pray that God would deliver us from despair. In a nutshell, I would say this. Unbelievers are

00:52:48.240 given to deception. Christians, according to scripture, according to this text, are not.

00:52:53.860 Again, that doesn't mean they'll have perfect theology. Doesn't mean they can't be wrong on 1.00

00:52:57.680 something. But on the whole, Christians are not deceived. Satan has two primary ministries.

00:53:05.740 With his own children, the unbelievers, Satan's ministry is a ministry of deception.

00:53:09.780 But for those who now see, have been given spiritual eyes to see, have been born again,

00:53:13.920 and our children of God, Satan's ministry is no longer chiefly a ministry of deception because

00:53:18.500 it won't work. So then he shifts to a ministry of despair. For the unbeliever, it is deception.

00:53:26.740 For the Christian, it's despair. That we know the truth. The Christian, for lack of a better 1.00

00:53:32.780 terminology, the Christian has taken the red pill. So what Satan loves to do is follow up the red 0.68

00:53:38.220 pill with a black pill the world is bad and it'll always be this way and there's nothing you can do

00:53:44.460 about it and that ministry of satan his despair is strong in the church these last 150 years

00:53:54.600 i'll let you figure out what happened 150 years ago schofield there you go

00:54:00.780 christianity it takes the red pill we call that total depravity doctrines of grace calvinism but

00:54:10.020 then it follows it up with a white pill we call that the post-millennial hope we're able to say

00:54:15.220 now people are bad i know people are bad i go to conferences entirely dedicated to the badness of

00:54:19.920 people i'm a calvinist things are rough but christ is greater he's the light of the world

00:54:29.420 and the darkness is not overcoming the light is advancing shout on pray on we're gaining ground

00:54:38.400 glory hallelujah and so we'll look at that the ministry of satan deception with his own the

00:54:43.880 unbeliever but seeking to cause despair with the christian he knows he can't deceive us

00:54:49.320 so instead he causes us to despair i'll probably pull in some pilgrim's progress john bunyan

00:54:55.800 Doubting Castle. The Christian, he knows the promises. And the whole time, here's the thing,

00:55:02.200 he's not deceived. He's not enslaved. He's not in prison. Not truly. The whole time, at any moment,

00:55:08.300 he could get out of the prison. But he has so been taught to despair by the giant in Doubting Castle.

00:55:18.960 Giant despair is his name. That he's forgotten that the entire time he has a key in his breast

00:55:25.340 plate pocket. The key is called promise. All he has to do is take it out and he can open the gate

00:55:33.760 to the prison and escape. Many Christians have the key. They're not deceived. They're not enslaved. 1.00

00:55:39.980 We have the key of promise in our pocket. But many Christians have not been deceived, but taught to

00:55:46.820 despair to such a degree that although the key is near our heart, we don't use it to break free

00:55:54.320 of the prison. We'll talk more about these things, like I said, two weeks from today. Next week,

00:56:01.700 one important announcement, we have Chris Wiley and Jared Longshore with us. We're going to have

00:56:06.820 our full day conference from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, November 11th, on the household and the

00:56:13.340 war for the cosmos. And then that Lord's Day, November 12th, I'll be doing the liturgy and

00:56:19.540 pastor jared longshore i will be preaching the sermon and so we hope that you guys will join us

00:56:25.060 for that if you have not registered for the conference just show up and we'll just see what

00:56:30.000 happens hopefully the weather's good and we can open up the doors and if not um it'll be a great

00:56:34.540 time but it'll feel kind of like christian and pilgrim's progress that we're we're trapped in

00:56:40.100 doubting castle it'll be it'll be uncomfortable but uh the content will be good all right let's

00:56:44.780 pray. Father, thank you for your word. Bless it to your people. For Christ's sake, amen.

The NXR Podcast - November 06, 2023

SUNDAY SERMON - For Those Doubting Their Salvation

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