The NXR Podcast - November 06, 2023


SUNDAY SERMON - For Those Doubting Their Salvation


Episode Stats


Length

56 minutes

Words per minute

145.96

Word count

8,291

Sentence count

260

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 .
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.