The NXR Podcast - November 20, 2023


SUNDAY SERMON - Satan’s Deadliest Weapons： Deception & Despair

Topics
love for brother in Christ deception idolatry
Hosted by
Joel Webbon Harrison Smith Antonio Griffith Dale Partridge Wewsley Todd Calvin Robinson
Mentioned
Abraham Paul Jesus Christ Luke Saruman Winsome Christian Jared Longshore Russia Ukraine Chris Wiley Matthew Messiah Jehovah Michael Lucifer Ephesus Thaoden Putin Mark Venn
DAILY TRUTH - What Is A Credible Confession Of Faith？ ｜ Part 1 THEOLOGY APPLIED - Faithful Fathering In The Midst Of Trashworld

Episode Stats


Length

1 hour and 4 minutes

Words per minute

159.28

Word count

10,315

Sentence count

677

Harmful content

Misogyny

7

sentences flagged

Toxicity

31

sentences flagged

Hate speech

87

sentences flagged


Summary

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

1 John 5:18-21 is a sermon on the question, "Have I been born again?" What does it mean to be a born-again Christian? What are the tests to determine whether or not you are a Christian if you are born again?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00 In less than a year, our podcast has gone from an average of 10,000 downloads a month
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00:00:27 Amen. This morning we're continuing with a sermon that I started two weeks ago.
00:00:33 The text being 1 John 5, verses 18-21.
00:00:36 If you were with us last Lord's Day, we paused because we had Jared Longshore, a pastor from Moscow, Idaho.
00:00:43 He was here. Him and Chris Wiley, another pastor.
00:00:46 The two of them were here. We did an all-day conference on Saturday.
00:00:49 And Jared stayed over and preached for us last Lord's Day.
00:00:52 So we're going to pick back up. I said this is going to have to be a two-parter.
00:00:56 this particular text, 1 John chapter 5, verses 18 through 21. Lord willing, I'll finish the text
00:01:02 today. So let's go ahead and stand for the reading of God's word to show honor and reverence
00:01:07 for who God is and how he has chosen to reveal himself in Holy Scripture.
00:01:12 I'll read the text in its entirety. When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say this is the
00:01:15 word of the Lord, at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks
00:01:20 be to God. One final time, our text for today is 1 John chapter 5, verse 18 through 21. The Bible
00:01:27 says this, we know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was
00:01:33 born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are from God, and
00:01:40 the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has
00:01:46 given us understanding so that we may know him who is true and we are in him who is true in his son
00:01:53 Jesus Christ he is the true God and eternal life little children keep yourselves from idols this
00:02:01 is the word of the Lord all right please be seated let's go ahead and dive right in this is a recap
00:02:07 because it's been two weeks now but what I did is I focused the entirety of my time two weeks ago
00:02:12 on the introduction. So a brief synopsis of that introduction is this, the entirety of John's first
00:02:20 epistle. Epistle is just another word for letter. So we have John's gospel. We have one gospel
00:02:26 according to Jesus Christ. So we have the gospel of Jesus Christ, the one gospel, but according to
00:02:31 four different human authors inspired by the Holy Spirit. So one gospel, but according to four
00:02:37 individual people, apostles, inspired by the Holy Spirit. That's Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
00:02:42 So we have John's gospel. Then we have John's epistles. There are three. First, second, third
00:02:48 John. First John, John's first epistle, explicitly deals with multiple topics, but the chief topic
00:02:55 is this, the assurance of salvation. Not just how can I be saved, but how can I know that I am saved?
00:03:02 How can I know that I've been born again, that I've been taken from spiritual death to spiritual
00:03:07 life, that I was lost, but now that I am found. How can I know these things? And John offers three
00:03:13 primary tests, three different categories for discerning, assessing whether or not you truly
00:03:19 have been born again. And these three tests are repeated multiple times throughout the five
00:03:24 chapters of John's first epistle, the book of first John. The three tests are as follows. One,
00:03:30 the obedience test. Are you obedient to Christ's commands? Are you obedient to Christ's commands?
00:03:38 It's a simple formula, for lack of a better word, but I think it suffices. Simple formula. It goes
00:03:44 like this. God loves us first. If God loves us, and he loves us salvifically, he loves us as a
00:03:51 father, he loves us in the beloved Jesus Christ. If you're his elect, then what's going to happen
00:03:57 inevitably, it's simply a matter of when, not if, is that God is going to cause you by the power of
00:04:03 his spirit to be born again. He's going to replace the heart of stone with a heart of flesh, as Connor
00:04:08 said, a heart that is softened and malleable and receptive to the love of God, that inevitably
00:04:13 cannot help, it cannot resist, we might use that word, but love God back in return. So 1 John 4,
00:04:20 19. We love because he first loved us. So first step, he loved us in the beloved. He loved his
00:04:27 own. He loved his people. He loved his children. Now, not everybody is a child of God. The Bible
00:04:33 does not teach that. You've heard me say it many times, so I'll say it quickly. A person is not
00:04:38 physically born into this world as a child of God. God is a universal creator. So he's the creator
00:04:47 of all people. All people are his creatures and all people bear his image. So all people are
00:04:52 image bearing creatures of the creator God, but not all people are children, are children of
00:05:01 father God. That's the whole idea throughout the scriptures. We see again and again,
00:05:05 the doctrine of spiritual adoption, right? Adoption, the way that that works, it necessitates,
00:05:11 It assumes that if you're adopting a child, the reason you're adopting that child is because the
00:05:17 child was not previously your child, but someone else's, right? So if you take a kid, you go down 0.66
00:05:23 to the courthouse and you say, we would like to legally adopt this child, my wife and I.
00:05:28 And then they look at you, they run some kind of, you know, blood test and say,
00:05:32 I've got news for you. And I think it's good news. The good news is this child already is
00:05:37 your child. This is your biological child. The bad news is that you're not very bright. And we don't
00:05:43 know if this child is in particularly good hands. You don't need to adopt your own biological child. 0.67
00:05:49 They're already yours. So the whole idea of spiritual adoption in the Bible, it assumes
00:05:55 that not everyone is God's child. That's why God has to adopt us. He's adopting us because we
00:06:01 previously were not his children, but children of someone else. And the Bible would say children of
00:06:07 the devil. Jesus says that in John chapter eight, right? The religious rulers of his time,
00:06:14 they're saying, well, we're children of Abraham. And Jesus said, well, God can raise up, you know,
00:06:19 children of Abraham from rocks. So number one, it's not that impressive. But number two,
00:06:24 you're not. Because here's the thing about children. Children usually bear some kind of
00:06:29 striking resemblance to their father. And you know what Abraham loved? You know, one quality,
00:06:35 one characteristics of Abraham, he loved me. Jesus says, Abraham prophetically looking forward
00:06:41 to the promised Messiah, his seed through whom all the nations would be blessed, not his seeds,
00:06:48 plural, but one singular seed who is Jesus, the Christ, that Abraham saw that one seed and knew
00:06:54 that not only Israel, according to the flesh, but that all the nations of the earth would be blessed
00:06:59 through the singular seed who is Christ. Abraham had this promise. He had this prophecy. He looked
00:07:06 forward to this messianic promise. It is in our past. We're looking back, but in his future,
00:07:12 looking forward, and he rejoiced. So Jesus says, you're not children of Abraham because Abraham 0.83
00:07:18 saw me and rejoiced. You see me and you want to kill me. So then they appeal even higher and say, 0.90
00:07:25 okay, well, Abraham, forget that. I mean, he is our father. You're wrong, Jesus. But better than
00:07:29 that, God is our father. And Jesus says, no, God is not your father because God loves me and sent
00:07:38 me. But you don't love me. You're not receiving me. No, children bear a striking resemblance to
00:07:45 their actual father. You look nothing like Abraham and you certainly look nothing like God.
00:07:50 But I'll tell you one paternal figure that you seem to resemble. He was a liar from the beginning 0.99
00:07:57 and a murderer and here you are lying and bearing false witness about me and seeking to crucify me 1.00
00:08:03 wrongfully aka commit murder your father is satan your daddy is the devil the words of jesus 0.99
00:08:13 slightly paraphrased but very slight so the point is when people are all god's children 0.97
00:08:19 you know who disagrees with you? Jesus. Okay, so we don't start as children of God.
00:08:26 Ephesians says that we begin as children of God's wrath and in a very real sense,
00:08:33 children of the devil. And the beauty of the gospel is that Christ in his finished work
00:08:39 and the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration, giving us a new heart, captivates us and takes
00:08:45 us out of the clutches of Satan and adopts us where we are no longer Satan's children, but now
00:08:51 we are God's beloved children in Christ, the beloved. So all that being said, the Bible does
00:08:57 not teach universal fatherhood of God, but rather universal creatorhood of God. So all that being
00:09:04 said, again, back to this little three-step formula, we love 1 John 4, 19, because he first
00:09:10 loved us it begins with the fatherly love of God which is not universal but in God's sovereignty
00:09:16 he chooses and he saves and adopts many not all but many and when that person is born again and
00:09:25 adopted as a child of God the immediate response inevitable irresistible response is we then love
00:09:33 him in return we love him because he first loved us so step one God loves you step two you love
00:09:40 god and then the third step very simple here the third step is jesus back to his words he says if
00:09:46 you love me you'll obey my commands so the first test that john gives for determining discerning
00:09:56 whether or not we're in the faith whether or not we've truly been born again whether or not we are
00:10:01 a follower of christ is the obedience step and it's not because we are through our obedience
00:10:07 meriting or earning salvation. None of us can earn salvation. All our works are filthy rags.
00:10:14 Apart from God's grace, no one can earn the grace and salvation of God. The only thing that your
00:10:23 works have earned is hell. The only thing that my works have earned is hell. But because of Jesus'
00:10:30 perfect finished work, his sinless life, fulfilling all righteousness, that is his active obedience,
00:10:37 and his passive obedience dying as a substitute on the cross
00:10:41 underneath the white hot wrath of God that we deserved in our place
00:10:45 through these things, through Jesus' finished work,
00:10:49 we have inherited through faith his righteousness.
00:10:54 His righteousness.
00:10:55 So the obedience test is not saying you better obey God
00:10:58 so that he'll respond with love for you.
00:11:01 That's entirely backwards.
00:11:03 No, the process is he loves you first
00:11:05 as a free act of his grace, his mercy.
00:11:10 And then you love him in return
00:11:12 because he first loved you.
00:11:14 And because you now love him,
00:11:17 a sign, an evidence of your love for him
00:11:20 will be a desire to ever increase in obedience.
00:11:24 Obey my commands.
00:11:25 First test, the obedience test.
00:11:27 Are you obeying the commands of God?
00:11:29 And with that one, let me add one further caveat.
00:11:32 what are God's commands?
00:11:35 That's the question that inevitably rises
00:11:37 or should rise
00:11:38 because there's a lot of people would say,
00:11:39 obedience test, great.
00:11:41 I'm doing, I'm off the charts.
00:11:43 And then you pry just a little bit
00:11:45 and you say, what does that look like?
00:11:47 What does that mean?
00:11:47 Well, here's virtue.
00:11:50 And look, here's me.
00:11:51 If this was a Venn diagram,
00:11:52 it'd just be a circle.
00:11:54 But the next question is,
00:11:55 but hold up, hold up.
00:11:57 How did you define virtue like this?
00:12:01 well this is what uh the majority of people democracy right that's in the bible thou shalt
00:12:06 have democracy and and this is what the majority of people have believed is virtuous for the last
00:12:10 15 minutes and therefore it is well no no the virtue is only virtue if if god says it's virtuous
00:12:19 god defines virtue and believe it or not i know and this is crazy i know it's going to just shatter
00:12:25 minds. But there have been other views of what is virtuous before the last 60 years.
00:12:34 Before, you know, before World War I and World War II, there were actually other ideas of what
00:12:41 virtue was. And so at the end of the day, it's like, well, is it this guy who says this or that
00:12:46 guy who said that? Or is it God? Is it his commandments? Are you obedient to his commandments?
00:12:52 So step number one or test number one, the obedience test.
00:12:55 Number two, the love test.
00:12:57 John says this again and again.
00:12:58 If you hate your brother who you see, who is seen,
00:13:02 but claim to love God who is invisible, who is unseen, 0.99
00:13:05 you're a liar and the truth is not in you. 0.99
00:13:08 So another sign, another evidence, another proof 0.99
00:13:11 that you actually love God and therefore have been loved by God
00:13:15 and therefore have been born again, saved,
00:13:17 an assurance of salvation, is that you don't just love God,
00:13:21 but you love your brother. Notice here too, it's not universal. It's in the same way that there's
00:13:28 not a universal fatherhood of God, but there is universal creatorhood. It's also not a universal
00:13:34 brotherhood when it comes to our horizontal relationship with our fellow man.
00:13:39 There's universal neighborhood. Everyone is your neighbor and God is everyone's creator
00:13:44 and every man is my neighbor, but God is not everyone's father and not everyone is my brother.
00:13:50 So particular fatherhood, brotherhood,
00:13:53 universal creatorhood, and neighborhood.
00:13:57 But what we see in 1 John specifically
00:13:59 is not just love for your neighbor
00:14:01 as a sign that you've been born again,
00:14:03 that you belong to Christ,
00:14:04 but love for your brother specifically
00:14:07 because he is your brother in Christ.
00:14:10 Whatever you do for the least of these,
00:14:12 my brothers, you have done for me.
00:14:15 And so I spent a lot of time two weeks ago
00:14:16 talking about that.
00:14:17 So the love test is love for the church, love for the saints, love for the body of Christ.
00:14:23 Galatians chapter six, as often as you have opportunity, do good to all, but especially
00:14:28 that is prioritize the household of faith.
00:14:32 So do I love God?
00:14:34 If I love God truly, if I truly love God, I only could truly love God if he salvifically
00:14:39 first loved me.
00:14:41 So that's a sign that I'm born again, that I'm saved.
00:14:43 But how can I test and discern and measure my love for God?
00:14:49 How do I know if that's real, if I really love God?
00:14:52 Do I love God's people?
00:14:54 Do I love the church?
00:14:55 And then furthermore, one extra little characteristic with that.
00:14:58 Do I love God's people in theory?
00:15:02 It's been popular for decades.
00:15:04 There's a lot of people, a lot of millennials have passionately loved the children in Uganda.
00:15:10 But they can't share the fridge with their roommate in college.
00:15:13 so do you love people or and just consider this for a moment i know again this is another thing
00:15:21 that just sounds absolutely shocking it sounds impossible like pigs flying but but there might 0.74
00:15:26 be a chance okay so just just consider it do you really love the children uganda but hate your
00:15:33 roommate and also hate your your mom and dad and also hate this roommate and you know and
00:15:36 and your entire life every single person that's ever been in any vicinity with you has always
00:15:40 been toxic and it's just this crazy coincidence? Or here's another alternative. Are you actually
00:15:47 just really bad at love? And the only people you love conveniently are people who are, you know,
00:15:51 like 8,000 miles away. That your love in theory, another way that you could kind of label that is
00:15:58 you could call it not love. You don't love. You don't. The only people you love are people you've
00:16:05 never met you love them in theory but not in tangible physical practical literal ways and
00:16:11 what we see in scripture again and again is how do you know that you uh that god loves you that
00:16:16 you've been saved you love him how do you know you love him you love his people and how do you
00:16:21 know you love his people you love them in reality not just in theory but in practice what does that
00:16:28 look like james talks about this the sermon on the mount matthew 5 6 and 7 jesus talks about this
00:16:34 if your brother is naked, you clothe him. You don't just say, I'm praying for a shirt.
00:16:40 You give him a shirt, right? If your brother is hungry, you feed him. If he's thirsty,
00:16:45 you give him water to drink. And if your brother is imprisoned, Jesus goes on to say,
00:16:51 then you go and visit him. And again, in this, it's your brother. And the implication there,
00:16:57 right? What's implied or assumed in visiting your brother, not just universal neighborhood,
00:17:02 but fellow man, but a brother in Christ, visiting them in prison, what's assumed there is that you
00:17:08 are visiting a brother in Christ who is imprisoned because he's a Christian. That's the context,
00:17:15 actually. I'm visiting a Christian who has been wrongfully imprisoned for being a Christian,
00:17:21 that they're being persecuted. So it's not just this boundless empathy, right? That's another
00:17:27 a problem in our culture today i just i have so much empathy uh in fact i have so much empathy
00:17:34 that that i've decided that facts of are of no regard you know facts facts uh don't matter you
00:17:41 know so this person is in prison and i just oh it's such a tragedy and i just love them and i
00:17:46 want to give them money and go visit them and yeah but that person's also a serial killer oh
00:17:51 like that person it is wrong that they're in prison because they should have already been 0.92
00:17:56 hanged. So I agree with you. It is unjust. But I think we have two different ideas of what the 0.90
00:18:03 injustice actually is in this scenario. We have this boundless empathy in our culture where,
00:18:10 oh, I feel for this person or I feel for that person. And we don't even stop to think,
00:18:15 what are the facts? So we think, who is the victim? And we assume that the first person to say,
00:18:23 I was oppressed. I was, I was treated wrongfully. I was this, I was that. We assume that person's
00:18:28 the victim, but in biblical language, did you know that bearing false witness, if that person
00:18:33 comes in first and spins a narrative, but it turns out they're lying, then the victim is actually the
00:18:40 person they're talking about. That's the true victim. And that's the person in a biblical
00:18:45 standard that God commands our sympathy, our compassion, and our help. So the obedience test,
00:18:53 obey God's commands. The love test, love for brothers and sisters in Christ, and a love that
00:18:58 is not just theoretical, but practical. And then lastly, the truth test, or we might call it the
00:19:04 doctrine test, that is having a accurate, credible profession of faith. What is a credible profession
00:19:11 of faith, at least two primary elements of that. It's a biblical profession, and it's a personal
00:19:18 profession. Biblical meaning you're professing the person and work of Christ according to the Bible.
00:19:27 The personal level is this. Galatians, Paul says, I am convinced that the Son of God gave himself,
00:19:33 loved me and gave himself up for me. The key word, loved me and gave himself up for me. And not in
00:19:42 some presumptuous, arrogant, me, me, me kind of in our secular culture, not that kind of way. But
00:19:49 it must be. If you have a credible profession of Christ, it must be biblical. That is, it's 0.90
00:19:55 accurate according to the scripture, what God says about Christ, but also personal. You cannot
00:20:02 merely believe as a Christian that Jesus died for someone somewhere out there. You have to actually
00:20:10 believe that Jesus died at Calvary as a substitute for you. That your sin was laid upon his shoulder.
00:20:18 That he who knew no sin became a curse, became sin. Our sin imputed to him. Your sin imputed to
00:20:27 him and that he suffered the white hot wrath of God in his crucifixion on your behalf so that God
00:20:33 no longer has any wrath remaining when he looks at you but only instead pleasure and love because
00:20:41 your sin was laid upon Christ he he received the wages of your sin which was death and his
00:20:49 righteousness has been laid upon you through faith and God looks at you and sees Jesus but you have
00:20:55 to believe that personally. You have to believe that that was done for you. Back to the biblical
00:21:00 aspect, you have to believe what the Bible says about Jesus. So when you're talking to someone,
00:21:07 it's like, well, I have a credible profession of Jesus. I believe in Jesus. I follow Jesus.
00:21:11 Here's the first question to ask, and you can do it in a loving, kind, respectful way. The first
00:21:15 question to ask when someone says, I believe in Jesus, you simply respond by saying, which one?
00:21:21 i believe in jesus i love jesus which jesus the jesus of sugar and spice and everything nice 0.68
00:21:29 right the jesus who's you know the jewish version of mr rogers right the jesus who's a tree-hugging
00:21:36 hippie you know who just really loves the forest right is it smoking the bear jesus like what kind 0.82
00:21:40 of jesus what what jesus are we talking about are we talking about blm jesus are we talking about
00:21:44 nancy pelosi jesus are we talking about the jesus who really loves women but but what that looks
00:21:49 like is murdering babies in the womb, that Jesus, or is it the biblical Jesus? Which Jesus? So when
00:21:57 we say a credible profession is a biblical confession of Jesus, it means confessing Christ
00:22:03 according to the scripture and a personal confession of Jesus that he's my Jesus. He's my
00:22:09 Jesus. He died for me. He loves me. I belong to him. I am his treasured possession. So obedience
00:22:18 test? Are you obeying his commands? The love test? Do you love God by loving God's people in real
00:22:25 tangible ways? The truth test or doctrinal test? Do you have a credible profession of faith, a.k.a.
00:22:32 your profession of Christ, your belief, your faith in Christ is both biblical and personal. That's
00:22:38 the book of 1 John in a nutshell. That's what I did in 60 minutes last week and this week,
00:22:43 probably 20 minutes. All right, so here we go. Now to the text, verse 18. That's where we're starting.
00:22:48 we know christians are kept from sin that's the first thing that we see verse 18 says we know that
00:22:54 everyone who has been born of god does not keep on sinning but he who he who was born of god protects
00:23:02 him and the evil one does not touch him what does that mean well uh it we know that when he says
00:23:11 we know that everyone who has been born of god does not keep on sinning john has already elsewhere
00:23:15 in this same epistle, he's already said that believers do in fact sin. We can look no further
00:23:22 than simply 1 John chapter 1 verse 8. So the very first chapter of this letter, 1 John chapter 1
00:23:28 verse 8 says this. It says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in
00:23:35 us. So when John says that one of the signs of being born of God is that we do not keep on sinning,
00:23:43 he's not he's not speaking out of both sides of his mouth he's not contradicting now in first
00:23:49 john chapter 5 verse 18 what he previously has said in first john chapter 1 verse 8 in first
00:23:55 john chapter 1 verse 8 he says if anyone claims to be without sin he's deceived himself so john
00:24:02 is is fully aware he knows good and well that even christians those who have been born of god
00:24:08 sin. So then what does he mean when he says, we know that everyone who has been born of God does
00:24:13 not keep on sinning. He must mean here that no genuine child of God lives in an indefinite state
00:24:21 of sin. John is simply saying that genuine conversion has an obvious result, namely
00:24:28 a righteous life. Then at the end of verse 18, John says this, and the evil one does not touch
00:24:36 him. John does not mean that Christians are completely immune to Satan's attacks. Satan can
00:24:42 still tempt Christians and even sift them like wheat if God in his sovereignty chooses to grant 0.90
00:24:49 Satan permission. Luke 22 verse 31. However, Satan can no longer enslave us. This is the key of what 0.84
00:24:57 John is saying. Chapter 5 verse 18. First verse of our text today. He's saying Satan can no longer
00:25:03 enslave us if we are born of God, Christians born again, and he cannot therefore make us
00:25:10 captives of sin for the rest of our lives. In short, Christians will continue to wrestle with 1.00
00:25:18 sin. Christians will continue to struggle with sin, but Christians are no longer slaves to sin
00:25:25 and Christians will be tempted and prodded and poked and bugged by the enemy.
00:25:33 we will at times be oppressed by the enemy there is such a thing for the christian as spiritual
00:25:39 attack but the christian can no longer be enslaved or fully taken captive by the enemy
00:25:47 so the christian sins but he is not a slave to sin and the christian is tempted and oppressed
00:25:55 in varying degrees at varying times in varying ways by satan but he is not a child of satan
00:26:01 He is not held fully captive by Satan. There is freedom from Satan and freedom from sin.
00:26:09 The three Ps when it comes to sin, the easiest way to remember this. Christ has fully,
00:26:15 fully broken or fully paid for the penalty of sin. That's done. If you are a Christian,
00:26:22 the penalty of sin has been fully paid for by Christ on your behalf. So the penalty of sin 1.00
00:26:27 is atoned for. It's done. It's paid. It's finished. The power of sin is broken. If you are a Christian
00:26:35 born again, you are not a slave to sin. However, in this life, not forever, but in this life,
00:26:41 the presence of sin remains. So for the Christian penalty of sin done power of sin, broken presence
00:26:51 of sin ongoing in this life only but first john also elsewhere says this when we see him we will
00:26:59 be like him for we shall see him as he is what john is referring to is that final day when this
00:27:07 life comes to a close when we stand before christ when we see him we shall be like him not like him
00:27:15 in every regard. He's God. Even in heaven for eternity, we will only ever still be creatures,
00:27:21 glorified creatures. Yes, but creatures nonetheless. We will not be like him in his,
00:27:27 in the fact of his omniscience and the fact that he is infinite and the fact that he is
00:27:33 God deity. But we will be like him in what regard? What is John specifically referencing?
00:27:38 When we see him, we'll be like him, meaning we will be like him in regard to his sinlessness.
00:27:45 that we will be pure, purified, that the presence, not only is the power of sin broken, that's done
00:27:52 even now if you're in Christ, but on that day when we see him, when we stand before him in the life
00:27:58 to come, not only is the power of sin broken, that's broken now, but the presence of sin will
00:28:05 be done away with, even the presence of sin. Paul says this in Romans chapter 7, sin still resides,
00:28:11 And Paul's saying this as a Christian. 1.00
00:28:13 I fully believe this is post-conversion.
00:28:16 And yet Paul, as a Christian, says,
00:28:18 sin still resides within the members of my being.
00:28:21 That is, sin still resides within my flesh.
00:28:23 So I find this law at work within me
00:28:25 that when I want to do good, I cannot carry it out.
00:28:28 Oh, what a wretched man I am who will save me 0.69
00:28:31 from this body of death. 0.94
00:28:34 That this body, currently, sin still resides
00:28:37 within the members of my body,
00:28:39 within the members of my flesh. 0.95
00:28:40 meaning that this sinful flesh, even as a born again Christian, the flesh in this life still 0.78
00:28:46 remains. And within my flesh, there is an ever present inclination, a propensity towards idolatry 0.99
00:28:54 and evil desires. Now, the idea of Christian faith is that by God's grace, we, as Paul says
00:29:02 elsewhere, I beat myself, I beat my flesh and make it my slave. That we are called to exercise 0.67
00:29:11 progressively more and more mastery over our sinful flesh, over our sinful desires. That we are not
00:29:18 slaves to Satan, slaves to sin, or slaves even to ourselves. However, here's the deal, you're still
00:29:26 a slave. Slavery is inevitable, just for the record. Everyone is a slave. The trick is being
00:29:33 a slave of the best master. You're either a slave of Satan, your flesh, a slave of sin,
00:29:41 slave of culture, a slave of other people, or you can be a slave of Jesus. And Jesus is the only
00:29:46 slave owner who can look his slaves in the face and in the same breath say, you are my slaves,
00:29:53 my bondservants to do my will, and yet I call you friend. That's the key. So all that being said,
00:30:03 the power of sin is broken. In addition to that, the penalty of sin for the Christian is paid, 1.00
00:30:09 and the presence of sin remains, and yet we are experiencing in sanctification by grace through
00:30:16 the power inner working of the Holy Spirit. We're experiencing further and further progressive
00:30:20 righteousness in this life, but eventually complete righteousness, where even the presence of sin will
00:30:27 be there no longer. That's verse 18 of our text. When John says, we know that everyone who has been
00:30:34 born of God does not keep on sinning. He's not saying that the sign, the only true telltale sign
00:30:40 of being a Christian is that you have achieved a state of sinless perfection. That is not what
00:30:46 John is teaching. There is no state of perfect, sinless perfection in this life. That state does
00:30:54 exist and it is the state of the Christian in the life to come. When we see him, we will be like him 0.96
00:31:00 for we shall see him as he is. In what regard? How is he? Sinless, righteous. And the very presence,
00:31:09 not only power and penalty, but even the presence of sin on that day will be no more. So what John
00:31:15 is saying is simple. He's not saying, if you're a Christian, you'll never sin again. But what he is
00:31:20 saying is that Christians should not be defined by sin. Christians experience real, progressive,
00:31:29 gradual, visible, tangible improvement in righteousness in this life. And if there's
00:31:38 nothing, if there's no fruit to speak of, I've been a Christian for 40 years, and in every single
00:31:44 category that I can think of, I've gotten worse. Well, you're going to hell. You're not a Christian. 0.99
00:31:51 I mean, it's really simple, right? This is an apple tree. And every year for 20 years now in 1.00
00:31:57 season, it produces pears. How many apples? Zero. Lots of pears. Great pears. It's my favorite apple
00:32:02 tree. Well, I think it's a pear tree. So that's what John's saying. Not sinless perfection in
00:32:12 this life, but progressive victory over sin. You are not a slave to sin and you're not a slave to
00:32:18 Satan. Because notice the second half of verse 18, he doesn't just say that no, everyone who has
00:32:24 been born of God does not keep on sinning. But then he goes on and says that God protects him
00:32:29 and the evil one does not touch him. Now that's the big theme in the text that we're going to see
00:32:34 multiple times as we move on to the other verses. Christians, not only are they free from slavery to
00:32:39 sin, but they're also free from slavery to Satan. And what we'll see is there's one primary tool
00:32:46 that Satan uses for the unbeliever. But for the Christian, this tool, this weapon has been stripped, 0.60
00:32:55 neutralized, disarmed. And we'll look into that a little bit more in a moment. Let's look at verse 0.99
00:32:59 19 now. We know that non-Christians, so we're comparing and contrasting. So Christians, they're 1.00
00:33:04 no longer defined by sin. They have victory over sin. They're being sanctified, and the devil may
00:33:10 tempt them, but he does not own them. Non-Christians, however, verse 19, on the other side, we know that 0.93
00:33:17 non-Christians belong to Satan and are deceived. Verse 19 of our text, John says, we know that we 0.96
00:33:25 are from God, and the whole world, or we might say, but the whole world, on the other hand,
00:33:30 lies in the power of the evil one. Throughout this letter, John has drawn a sharp line between
00:33:38 Christians and the rest of the world. You see that in multiple places. One example would be
00:33:43 1 John 3, verse 1. There is no middle ground. A person is either of God or they are of the world
00:33:53 in line in the power of the evil one. That's what verse 19 says. Let's look at the text one more
00:33:59 time. First John chapter five, verse 19. We know that we are from God and the whole world, by way
00:34:06 of contrast, lies in the power of the evil one. Some translations actually say in the arms of the
00:34:14 evil one. The picture that John is painting here, it's vivid and profound. We need to get it into
00:34:21 our minds and souls. The picture that John is painting here of the unbeliever, the non-Christian, 1.00
00:34:27 is not that they are like frantic captives
00:34:31 desperately trying to escape Satan's clutches.
00:34:35 Rather, unbelievers lie happily and peacefully 1.00
00:34:39 in the arms of their father, Satan, 1.00
00:34:42 like babies cooing at their mother,
00:34:46 oblivious to their own impending doom.
00:34:50 The devil has blinded their minds
00:34:52 and deceived them,
00:34:54 according to 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4. 0.93
00:34:57 So the Christian, what does the Christian look like?
00:35:00 He's no longer defined or marked by sin.
00:35:03 He's no longer a slave to sin.
00:35:05 He is growing in righteousness.
00:35:07 He still struggles with sin.
00:35:09 The presence of sin remains,
00:35:10 but he is growing in righteousness,
00:35:12 gaining victory over the power of sin.
00:35:15 And the devil does not touch him.
00:35:18 Temptation, oppression, yes,
00:35:19 but the devil cannot hold him.
00:35:22 But who does the devil hold? 1.00
00:35:24 The unbeliever.
00:35:25 And the unbeliever is not being held by Satan as a captive, frantically trying to get out of his clutches.
00:35:31 But the unbeliever is actually being held by Satan as though he is their father, like an infant rocking them.
00:35:39 And they look up into their father's eyes, the devil. 0.59
00:35:42 And if they could speak, they would say, I love you. 1.00
00:35:46 That's the unbeliever. 1.00
00:35:48 Well, I have unbelieving neighbors and they're really nice.
00:35:52 Okay. 1.00
00:35:52 but if god doesn't save them by his grace that unbelieving neighbor will curse god for eternity 0.97
00:35:59 in hell if you really can get down to the root of it if you really can get down to the root of it
00:36:06 the unbeliever is not neutral towards god he's not merely indifferent towards god or uninterested
00:36:14 in the things of god but romans 8 says that the mind of the unbeliever is hostile towards god
00:36:20 at enmity with God.
00:36:21 He does not submit to God's law, nor can he.
00:36:25 He is unwilling and unable. 1.00
00:36:28 If you're wondering about unbelievers, 1.00
00:36:31 about the non-Christian and whether or not
00:36:32 they really hate God, 1.00
00:36:34 just go to an abortion route 0.87
00:36:36 and just read a few scriptures
00:36:39 about what God says about murder 1.00
00:36:41 and watch as purple-haired feminists, 1.00
00:36:45 you know, they begin to scream and screech 1.00
00:36:49 about how much they love killing their babies 0.99
00:36:52 and they hate Jesus. 0.99
00:36:55 It's actually a really merciful thing.
00:36:57 It's something that God has done.
00:36:58 I don't know if you've witnessed this,
00:37:00 but it's something that God has done
00:37:01 in his providence, in his kindness, in nature.
00:37:04 Right, a poison dart frog.
00:37:06 The way God designed it is that it's bright colors.
00:37:09 So you know, stay away. 1.00
00:37:11 God has done this with feminists in 2023. 1.00
00:37:14 Right, you look at their hair. 1.00
00:37:16 If it's purple, if it's red, if it's pink,
00:37:18 whoop, poison dart frog. Be careful. Don't get too close. That's God's, you know, loving kindness
00:37:23 towards us, warning his people. All right. So we know that non-Christians belong to Satan and are
00:37:31 deceived. Now again, on the flip side, it's just comparing and contrasting. That's what this text 0.95
00:37:36 is doing again and again. The Christian, the believer, however, is not deceived. He's not
00:37:43 deceived. We know that Christians do not belong to Satan, but rather belong to Jesus and have been
00:37:49 given understanding. The opposite of deception, Christians have been given understanding. This is
00:37:56 verse 20 of our text. Let me read it again so it's fresh in our minds. In verse 20 of our text, John
00:38:01 says, and we know that the son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him
00:38:09 who is true. In direct contrast with the blind indifference of the world, Christians have been 0.89
00:38:16 given spiritual, supernatural understanding from Jesus in order to know the one and only true God
00:38:24 of the Bible. Let's look at some verses that back this up, right? Cross-referencing here other verses
00:38:31 in scripture. This is Luke chapter 10 verse 21 through 22 says this, in that same hour he rejoiced
00:38:37 in the Holy Spirit and said, this is Jesus. I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
00:38:43 that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little
00:38:49 children. Revelation, understanding. For such was your gracious will. All things have been handed
00:38:58 over to me by my father. That's Jesus. And no one knows who the son is except the father or who the
00:39:06 father is except the son and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him. What Jesus is saying
00:39:14 is simple. If you are in Christ, he has chosen to reveal to you the father. You know God because
00:39:25 and only because you know his son and his son has chosen supernaturally to reveal his father
00:39:33 to you. To say it in the negative, in the other direction, if you don't know Christ, you don't
00:39:40 know God. If you are a Muslim, you don't know God. If you are a Talmudic Jew, you don't know God. 1.00
00:39:54 Unless you are a Christian who knows Christ and has a biblical confession of Christ, not that he 0.99
00:40:00 who's just a good guy or a philosopher or a prophet, but that he is the only begotten son of 0.77
00:40:07 God, creator, not a created being, not a Jehovah's witness or Mormon view that he's really just the
00:40:15 archangel Michael and brother of Lucifer, that he's the first among created beings, but he's not
00:40:20 actually the creator himself. No, that's garbage. That's heresy. That's wrong. Now, if you don't 0.99
00:40:27 know Jesus. And again, the question is, which one? I'm talking about what the Bible says about Jesus.
00:40:32 If you don't know Jesus from the scripture, then you do not know God. Because the only people who
00:40:38 know God is Jesus, his son, and those Christ chooses to reveal him to. Luke 10, 21 and 22.
00:40:46 Also 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14. But the natural man does not accept the things of the spirit of
00:40:52 God, for they are folly to him. He cannot understand them because they are spiritually
00:40:59 discerned. And how do you spiritually discern these spiritual things? With spiritual eyes and
00:41:05 spiritual ears and a new softened spiritual heart, which comes by the Holy Spirit.
00:41:12 And the Holy Spirit not only gives you a regenerate new heart, but he gives you faith in
00:41:17 Jesus. And in knowing Jesus, seeing Jesus, savoring and loving and worshiping Jesus,
00:41:25 Christ will also reveal to you his father. So for the unbeliever, they don't know God. 0.93
00:41:33 The chief ministry, here it is. This is probably the biggest line of the sermon that I want you
00:41:38 to come away with today. The chief ministry of Satan with the unbeliever is primarily a ministry 0.93
00:41:46 of deception. But the chief ministry of Satan with the believer, with the Christian, is primarily 0.92
00:41:54 a ministry of doubt and despair. And this is where I want us to land the plane, and then I'll read the 0.85
00:42:02 last point as our conclusion, and I'll read it briefly. But this is where I want us to rest our
00:42:07 hat and just sit for just a little bit. Satan's chief ministry with a non-Christian is keeping 0.99
00:42:14 them deceived, keeping them blind, making sure they remain plugged in to the matrix. 0.99
00:42:25 All right, that they just, they see all these things and they love it. They love trash world. 0.99
00:42:32 They love clown world, right? They think that, you know, there's never been anyone who's ever 0.99
00:42:38 been moral. No moral culture has ever existed in the history of humanity until 15 minutes ago.
00:42:44 right there did i mean there are people who really believe that people who really believe
00:42:49 that they think all the founders of our republic were terrible people they think that every
00:42:56 generation and every culture and every nation ever has been bad until they were born right 1.00
00:43:02 they are deceived they're plugged into the matrix they're cuckoo they're crazy they're arrogant 1.00
00:43:11 They're proud and not only deceived about the world, but first and foremost, their deception 0.99
00:43:19 stems because they have a wrong view of God. They're deceived about God. They're deceived
00:43:25 about Christ. The chief ministry of Satan, when it comes to the non-Christian, is a ministry of 0.96
00:43:31 deception. He has deceived them and he is keeping them deceived, keeping them blind, right? If they 0.92
00:43:39 start to stir, even for a second, he rocks him just a little bit more steadily. Begins to sing
00:43:45 another lullaby. Rock-a-bye, baby. That's his ministry. But if you're a Christian, you've
00:43:54 been born again. Here's the mark of a Christian. You don't keep on sinning. Again, not sinless 0.53
00:43:59 perfection. Not in this life. But it means you're warring now against sin. You're not happily sinning.
00:44:05 you're not a slave to sin. You're warring against sin. And yes, you're still being tempted by the
00:44:11 enemy. There's still spiritual, spiritual attack, but you're no longer owned by Satan, not a slave
00:44:16 to Satan. And you may not have perfect theology. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that the
00:44:21 Christian upon conversion has all his doctrinal I's dotted and T's crossed, but he does understand
00:44:28 the basic fundamental truths of the faith.
00:44:32 He knows Jesus, the person and work of Jesus.
00:44:35 He knows that we are born again
00:44:38 and saved by grace alone, through faith alone,
00:44:41 in Christ alone.
00:44:43 He is no longer deceived.
00:44:47 And so here's the life of a Christian.
00:44:49 This is the point.
00:44:51 The moment you get unplugged from the matrix,
00:44:53 the moment that you're no longer a slave of Satan,
00:44:56 a slave of sin,
00:44:58 The moment your eyes are open, your ears are open,
00:45:02 you've got a new heart, you're spiritually awake,
00:45:05 you're no longer deceived, you're no longer asleep.
00:45:11 Essentially what that does is it means that moment,
00:45:14 we call it conversion,
00:45:15 that moment is the day of a declaration of war.
00:45:19 So life gets harder.
00:45:22 I don't understand.
00:45:24 I'm following Jesus and things are tough.
00:45:27 remember the whole world lies in the arms of the enemy not frantic captives looking at you and 0.94
00:45:36 your freedom in christ and wishing they could have it no they're lying sucking their thumbs
00:45:41 in satan's arm and looking at you doing war against their father who they love 0.97
00:45:49 you're insulting their dad
00:45:52 so they hate you of course they hate you why would they hate me i didn't see this coming
00:46:00 read the book jesus said the student is not beyond the teacher the slave is not greater
00:46:06 than the master if they hated me they will hate you there's only one way to avoid hatred from the
00:46:13 world as a Christian. The only way to avoid hatred from the world as a Christian is to look nothing
00:46:21 like a Christian. To look nothing like Jesus. And to think, well, I'm faithfully following Jesus 1.00
00:46:30 and unbelievers, they think really well of me. And that guy over there, he thinks he's faithfully
00:46:38 following Jesus, but he's always stirring up ruckus and drama and conflict. You mean like
00:46:44 all the apostles? Like the guys who had prison ministries because everywhere they went? Paul,
00:46:50 literally, his title that people gave to him is one who stirs up riots.
00:46:58 Right? So you're Mr. Winsome Christian, but the apostle Paul who wrote underneath the
00:47:04 inspiration of the holy spirit two-thirds of the new testament scripture he was known not as mr
00:47:09 winsome christian but as mr one who stirs up riots because the the gospel that he preached
00:47:18 both law and gospel here's the thing part of the reason paul was always in trouble and people
00:47:23 wanted to imprison him is because he didn't just change people's opinions in such a way
00:47:28 that it began to transition their private inward lives.
00:47:33 Now, when he was in Ephesus,
00:47:35 the way that he was preaching Christ
00:47:37 and the way that he was wailing on idolatry
00:47:41 actually began to affect the economy.
00:47:45 Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.
00:47:48 They began to chant and scream
00:47:51 as a mob in the city square.
00:47:54 He's desecrating our idols
00:47:55 and we are soon to lose,
00:47:58 not only are gods losing their good reputation,
00:48:00 but we are soon to lose our trade,
00:48:04 our livelihood.
00:48:07 See, that's where all of a sudden 1.00
00:48:09 Christianity becomes a threat. 1.00
00:48:12 The reason we've got along so well 0.99
00:48:14 with the world for such a long time
00:48:15 is because we haven't been a threat.
00:48:19 The world, our world,
00:48:21 has been perfectly fine with Christians for decades 1.00
00:48:24 is because Christians don't do anything.
00:48:27 Of course we don't get any hostility.
00:48:31 We don't get any hostility
00:48:32 because we haven't gone to war.
00:48:36 But I like to think that by the grace of God, 0.96
00:48:40 that the church is like the Ents,
00:48:42 the March of the Ents.
00:48:44 You're like the Ents.
00:48:44 What scripture is that?
00:48:47 It's Tolkien.
00:48:50 Talking about the two towers,
00:48:52 Isengard and the ends they look around and they say I'm on nobody's side I'm not on Gandalf side
00:49:03 or Saruman I'm on nobody's side because no one is on my side and that's how I feel in this given 0.75
00:49:11 moment all right Russian Ukraine I'm on nobody's side I'm not a fan of Putin I think he's a war 0.61
00:49:20 though. I'm sure as heck not a fan of Ukraine. I think they're the money purse of the most corrupt
00:49:27 politicians in the entire world. I feel somewhat similar about Israel and Palestine. 0.96
00:49:36 I'm no fan of Hamas. They're Islamic terrorists. And if God doesn't mercifully intervene and save 1.00
00:49:42 them they're going to hell but when i look at israel and i look at ukraine 0.96
00:49:47 i feel like i'm looking at the same picture 0.59
00:49:51 israel is not a bastion of judeo-christian values which is an oxymoron israel like america
00:50:00 not trying to just pick on them it's a bastion of the rainbow flag 0.79
00:50:04 exporting perversion around the world. 1.00
00:50:14 I'm on nobody's side because nobody's on my side.
00:50:19 Nobody's on my side.
00:50:20 Nobody's on America's side.
00:50:24 Right?
00:50:24 We're all Christian nationalists
00:50:26 if we're talking about any nation except for ours.
00:50:29 Right?
00:50:30 With some billions to Ukraine, billions to Israel.
00:50:33 You can be a Christian nationalist if we're talking about being a Zionist.
00:50:36 You can be a Christian nationalist if you're talking about this place or that place or anywhere. 0.87
00:50:40 But you can't ever do anything for your own people. 0.86
00:50:44 Nobody's on your side, brothers and sisters.
00:50:46 You just need to wake up to that.
00:50:48 You need to know that.
00:50:48 Get it deep in your bones.
00:50:50 Wake up.
00:50:51 Nobody's on your side.
00:50:54 I'm on no one's side because nobody's on my side.
00:50:57 But here's what the ints eventually do.
00:50:59 eventually they get kind of tricked by these little tiny hobbits and they get just close
00:51:08 enough to Isengard to see how terrible Saruman actually is. They get woken up 0.96
00:51:17 kind of like a 2020, 2021, 2022 kind of situation. They get awakened to see how bad trash world 0.91
00:51:26 really is how bad clown world really is that the world the unbelieving world they're not actually 1.00
00:51:32 neutral they're not willing to coexist they're not willing to go along to get along they actually 1.00
00:51:37 want to take your children destroy your lives they hate every biblical principle and then what
00:51:45 happens is that when the ants get close enough to isengard to see what saruman has done uprooting
00:51:51 other trees, their friends, and burning them. Then all of a sudden, they go into a righteous
00:51:58 rage. The church needs to be angry today. Righteously angry. Jesus is meek and mild.
00:52:09 We want to look like him, but he's not only meek and mild. John chapter 2, Jesus was fashioning a
00:52:16 whip with cords. He was throwing over the money changers tables, releasing all the livestock
00:52:23 and whipping out these thieves out of his father's house. Get out of here. Don't desecrate my father's
00:52:33 house. My father's house is not a den of thieves, but it is a house of prayer for all nations.
00:52:39 and i believe that as difficult as things have been there is not only a silver lining i think
00:52:48 it's more than just that it's an incredible mercy in the providence of god that people
00:52:54 are waking up the temperature slowly turned up on the boiling pot of water so the frogs are
00:53:01 eventually boiled alive they they never they never realize how hot it's getting they never
00:53:06 jump out of the pot but but in 2020 these last three years since then what trash world has done
00:53:13 is they got a little cocky and they they thought you know what we're already close enough we can
00:53:19 just we could just finish it up and they turned up the knob suddenly and a lot of frogs stayed in
00:53:26 the water because their nerve endings were already shot but a few that still had a little breath in
00:53:32 their lungs, felt the temperature rise for the first time and realized this isn't a party in a
00:53:38 hot tub. This is dinner. And they jumped out and they're starting to fight back like the Ents
00:53:45 seeing what Saruman was actually up to. And the Ents will now go to war. The church is a sleeping
00:53:52 giant. The church is the most powerful, formidable force in all the world, in all human history.
00:54:02 it's not a singular nation it's not a military it is the church of jesus christ it is the
00:54:08 battering ram of christ and the gates of hell will not prevail against it but she has to wake
00:54:14 up she has to wake up and in the mercy of god i believe she is and she's a sleeping giant and when
00:54:23 she rouses from her slumber and i would argue it's not just a 60 year slumber from the sexual
00:54:29 revolution of the 1960s. It's not just a boomer slumber. It's not even just 120 or 130 years.
00:54:38 I think it's a slumber that's been going on for a long time. I would track it back at least
00:54:43 to the enlightenment. But I do believe that by the grace of God, this leaping giant can wake
00:54:50 once more. And if she does, or because of the promises of scripture, I think we should say
00:54:58 when she does, be it our generation or the generation of our children or the generation
00:55:04 of our children's children, not if, but inevitably, by the grace of God, when she wakes,
00:55:11 she will do violence to the gates of hell, and it will be beautiful and glorious.
00:55:19 Since the beginning, the kingdom of God has suffered violence, but the violent take it by force.
00:55:26 that is not talking that's bible the violent shall take it by force nobody waltzes in to heaven
00:55:36 not to the one who conquers will be given the crown of life to the one who endures to the end
00:55:46 will be given the crown of life paul says to the corinthians strengthen yourselves
00:55:54 act like men. Be awake, be watchful, be alert. And by the grace of God, this is happening.
00:56:06 And we must do vigilance in our own lives, in our homes, in our business, in politics,
00:56:16 in our county, in every place where we are. We must be vigilant to be watchful, to be alert,
00:56:22 to be awake, and to perform righteous violence. Since the beginning, the kingdom of God has
00:56:30 suffered violence, but the violent shall take it by force. Our weapons are not carnal, but our
00:56:36 weapons are spiritual, powerful, for tearing down strongholds and every lofty opinion that sets
00:56:43 itself up and over against the knowledge of Christ. We uproot and decimate ideologies and
00:56:50 deceptions and lies. Because what John is saying in this text is that the mark of the world, the
00:56:58 mark of the unbeliever is that they're asleep. They're lying in the arms of Satan. They are 0.98
00:57:03 deceived. They are deaf. They are dead. They are blind. But not so with the child of God. 1.00
00:57:10 The child of God does not go on sinning. The child of God is not a child of Satan.
00:57:17 the child of God wrestles he wars but he is not a slave and the child of God is not deceived or
00:57:24 blind but he has been given understanding and because of that and because Satan knows that
00:57:31 his chief ministry with your unbelieving neighbor will be a ministry of quiet and often comfortable
00:57:38 deception but his ministry with you because he cannot deceive you because you've been given 0.76
00:57:45 understanding by Christ himself, his ministry with you will not be deception, but despair.
00:57:52 And so brothers and sisters, hear me. Do not despair. Don't despair.
00:58:02 Don't give up. See, that's the problem right now. There are a lot of people who have, you know,
00:58:08 like Neo and the matrix, the blue pill, you go back to sleep and the red pill, you wake up.
00:58:12 There's a lot of people who took the red pill. You've heard me say this. They've woken up.
00:58:15 but then he immediately followed that red pill
00:58:17 with a black pill of utter despair.
00:58:21 You're no good if you despair.
00:58:25 Back to Lord of the Rings, right?
00:58:26 Bible, Matrix, and Lord of the Rings.
00:58:28 Those are my, that's my biblical, you know,
00:58:30 and proof text and cultural support.
00:58:32 But back to Lord of the Rings, Thaoden.
00:58:34 He's a good guy.
00:58:36 He's one of the good guys. 0.98
00:58:38 But when he's under the spell of Saruman, 1.00
00:58:41 he despairs. 0.69
00:58:43 Everything in his mind is meaningless.
00:58:45 we can't win we'll never survive right Gondor they've lit the torches Gondor calls for aid
00:58:52 will Rohan answer but finally it's not just that he wakes up to how bad things are he also you need
00:59:00 two things not one you don't need to just know how bad things are we got plenty of people going
00:59:06 around today patting themselves on the back saying I'm enlightened I'm aware I know how bad things
00:59:11 are. I know that feminism exists and how bad it is and where it started and blah, blah, blah. Okay, 1.00
00:59:16 great. What's the solution? Get a vasectomy in your twenties, never have kids and don't get
00:59:19 married. You blackpilled. You gave up. You're not a man. I'm not impressed by you. You're awake. 0.64
00:59:27 You're awake, but you're hopeless. Get out of here with that. No, thank you. No, it's not just
00:59:36 knowing the time and the hour that things are bad it's knowing also the power of satan the
00:59:42 darkness of the hour but that christ is greater that christ is greater and that we win and we
00:59:50 don't just win spiritually in the 17th dimension we don't just win privately in our homes and we
00:59:55 don't just win uh in in some bottom of the ninth saved by the bell mentality but we will win
01:00:02 intangibly, physically, literally, progressively in this time, in real human history. And if our
01:00:12 generation is a lateral play, if that's all it is, if all my life is, is actually passing the ball
01:00:19 back to my son so that he can move the ball yards down the field, so be it. But the question is not
01:00:28 if we win, but simply when will we win? And we will. So little children, the last verse, verse 21,
01:00:37 keep yourselves from idols. It seems random. We've been talking about all these things. John hasn't
01:00:44 mentioned idolatry actually once in all five chapters of this letter. At the very end, he seems
01:00:49 to abruptly change the entire subject, but he's not. At first glance, it seems out of context.
01:00:56 However, as we look closer, we will come to realize that this final command,
01:01:00 little children, keep yourselves from idols, actually sums up John's entire message.
01:01:06 Verse 21 of our text, John says,
01:01:08 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
01:01:10 Invariably, idolaters always fashion for themselves their own made-up gods
01:01:16 to suit their desires and preferences.
01:01:19 They do not submit to the God who's revealed himself in Christ Jesus
01:01:24 and through the pages of scripture. Many churches in our nation are filled with false converts 0.99
01:01:29 who happily listen to false teachers who consistently promote a false Jesus. Here's the
01:01:36 line. John wants us to realize that this is not simply a matter of bad theology, but rather this
01:01:44 is idolatry. Heresy is idolatry. Idolatry is worshiping another God. And bad theology,
01:01:55 when it comes to the person and work of Jesus Christ, is fashioning for yourself another God.
01:02:01 It's not just that, oh, you have bad theology about Jesus. If your theology is bad enough
01:02:06 about Jesus, you have another Jesus. And another Jesus is an idol. So John is not changing subjects
01:02:14 here at the very end of his letter.
01:02:15 This is the last verse in 1 John.
01:02:17 He's not changing subjects.
01:02:19 It's not random.
01:02:21 Instead, he's summing up the entirety of his message.
01:02:23 He's saying this.
01:02:25 Theology matters, brothers and sisters,
01:02:27 because theology, when it goes off the rails
01:02:30 and goes to a certain point too far,
01:02:32 it's no longer just bad theology.
01:02:34 It is idolatry. 1.00
01:02:36 Remember, Christians, the Israelites in the wilderness 1.00
01:02:40 when they had crossed the Red Sea
01:02:41 and Moses went up to the top of Mount Sinai
01:02:44 to meet with God and he had been gone
01:02:46 in their opinion for too long.
01:02:48 They fashioned for themselves a golden calf
01:02:51 and began to worship the calf.
01:02:52 But notice they didn't say,
01:02:54 hey, we're done with Yahweh
01:02:55 and now we have this other idol that we call Cal.
01:02:59 We worship Cal now instead of Yahweh.
01:03:01 No, they said, this is Yahweh.
01:03:04 This is, oh Israel, your God
01:03:06 that led you through the Red Sea.
01:03:08 and that's what the church still does to this day if we're not careful if we're not vigilant
01:03:15 if we're not if we're not diligent to preach from the scripture to preach sound doctrine of biblical
01:03:21 and personal confession of jesus christ what happens is this it's not that you say well
01:03:27 you know we're gonna stop worshiping jesus now we're gonna we're gonna worship you know
01:03:30 allah instead no that's not how it works what happens is you say oh we're still worshiping
01:03:37 Jesus. Of course we worship Jesus. We love Jesus. But the Jesus that you have erected is no longer
01:03:44 Jesus. Still worshiping Christ by name, but no longer by substance. It's not just bad theology.
01:03:53 It is another God. It is idolatry. All right, let's pray. Father, thank you for your word.
01:03:59 Bless it to your people. I pray that we'd be encouraged and inspired to live lives for your
01:04:05 glory and for the good of your people in our generation that you have providentially placed 0.96
01:04:11 us in this place this time that we would not despair the unbeliever is deceived but the
01:04:18 christian is tempted by despair but let it not be said of us let us have great hope that we would
01:04:25 see we wouldn't be naive we wouldn't minimize the power of darkness in this moment it is great
01:04:31 but that we also wouldn't minimize the power of christ it is greater greater is he who is in you
01:04:38 than he who is in the world help us to believe these things to live these things all for your
01:04:43 glory in jesus name we pray amen