The NXR Podcast - SUNDAY SERMON - What I Learned After Years Of Thinking I Was Going To Hell

00:00:00.000 All right, listen, guys, I get it.

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00:00:41.240 So for this morning, I'm going to be preaching from 1 John 2, verses 12 through 14.

00:00:49.660 1 John 2, verses 12 through 14.

00:00:53.260 If you've been with us since the beginning of Covenant Bible Church, we first gathered

00:01:00.220 for worship on the Lord's Day, covenanted as a church.

00:01:04.500 The first Sunday of April 2021, we began a series through the Psalms.

00:01:09.660 After that, we began a series through the book of Hebrews.

00:01:13.820 We recently completed our series through the book of Hebrews, and what we've done is kind

00:01:19.480 of pause from our bread and butter, the typical preaching diet of this congregation, which

00:01:25.460 is expositional preaching through whole books of the Bible from the beginning to the end.

00:01:31.380 We're taking a brief pause.

00:01:33.860 Last week, if you were with us, I preached on the importance of biblical church membership.

00:01:39.160 This week, the entire sermon will be devoted to the importance of the assurance of salvation.

00:01:46.080 Next week, Lord willing, I'll be preaching on the importance of the gospel, particularly how the gospel is the fuel towards obedience to the law of God.

00:01:57.480 The following week will be Easter Sunday where I will be preaching on the importance of the bodily resurrection.

00:02:05.580 And then, Lord willing, we will begin a new sermon series through the book of Joshua.

00:02:10.780 When we finish the book of Joshua, we will begin another sermon series through the book of Ezra.

00:02:17.720 And when we finish the book of Ezra, we should be right at the end of the year 2023, the year of our Lord.

00:02:25.760 So that's our plan for this year when it comes to the preaching schedule for Covenant Bible Church.

00:02:31.400 Again, today we're going to focus on the assurance of salvation, knowing that we believe.

00:02:38.940 the security and stability and confidence of knowing that we have salvation in Christ Jesus.

00:02:48.420 Our text, one final time, is 1 John 2, verses 12-14. Would you join me now in standing for

00:02:58.000 the reading of God's Word? I'll read our text in its entirety. When I finish reading the text,

00:03:03.600 I'm going to say, this is the Word of the Lord, at which point I would appreciate very much if

00:03:08.920 you would respond by saying thanks be to God. The Bible says this, I am writing to you little

00:03:17.920 children because your sins are forgiven for his namesake. I am writing to you fathers because you

00:03:25.760 know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you young men because you have overcome the

00:03:32.360 evil one. I write to you children because you know the father. I write to you fathers because you know

00:03:40.300 him who is from the beginning. I write to you young men because you are strong and the word of God

00:03:47.520 abides in you and you have overcome the evil one. This is the word of the Lord. All right please be

00:03:56.000 seated. By way of introduction, I've written the following. The Apostle John, in this letter,

00:04:03.100 his first epistle, he has been using very strong language as he warns believers about the dangers

00:04:09.920 of false teachers who are trying to deceive them. He has just said that if you do not love your

00:04:16.580 brother, then you are in the darkness. That's 1 John 2, verse 11. And John is about to say that

00:04:24.920 if you love the world, then you do not have the Father's love in you. That's 1 John chapter 2

00:04:31.860 verse 15. However, right in between these two strong warnings, John inserts this short section

00:04:39.180 of encouragement for those who may be afraid. John wants his readers at whatever stage in the

00:04:46.600 Christian life they are at to remember and celebrate what God has done thus far in their

00:04:53.020 lives. He wants them to possess a powerful assurance of their salvation. In light of all this,

00:05:00.200 I believe the main point of our text today is this. Regardless of where you presently are in

00:05:07.260 your Christian walk, God wants you to frequently recognize and remember past evidences of his grace

00:05:14.820 in your life. One of the ways that Satan inhibits our future sanctification is by robbing us of the

00:05:22.940 assurance of our past sanctification. John Calvin, in commentating on our text today, says this,

00:05:31.860 having faithfully spoken of good works, lest the apostle John should seem to give them more

00:05:38.040 importance than he ought to have done, he carefully calls us back to contemplate the grace

00:05:44.580 of Christ. If you're not familiar with the book of 1 John, I'll give you a brief summary.

00:05:51.940 The book of 1 John, I believe, is the most profound book in the Bible on the particular topic of the assurance of salvation.

00:06:03.400 And it can be broken down into three primary parts, not necessarily in order.

00:06:10.540 John bounces back and forth between these three parts throughout the five chapters of his letter.

00:06:17.160 but the three different parts of John's first epistle are as follows they're all three tests

00:06:25.500 that you can take at a personal level seeking to be objective perhaps inviting in some other

00:06:33.300 mature brothers or sisters in Christ to co-discern along with you but three tests

00:06:40.340 to assess yourself to see whether or not you are in the faith to see whether or not you have

00:06:47.080 truly been born again. The three tests are as follows. One, the truth test. Two, the relational

00:06:56.660 test. And three, the moral test. The truth test, the relational test, and the moral test. In regards

00:07:07.360 to the truth test what we see in first john is that doctrine matters and john explicitly says

00:07:17.120 multiple times that if a person cannot confess doctrinally that christ has come in the flesh

00:07:25.160 then he is not of god that he is demonic that he does not have the spirit that a person must be

00:07:35.200 able to say that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and there's a lot included in that statement

00:07:41.420 to acknowledge that Christ has come in the flesh is not merely to acknowledge the incarnation

00:07:46.960 but it is to also by way of implication to acknowledge that Christ is eternal he has come

00:07:55.300 in the flesh not that he was created in the flesh but that he pre-existed the incarnation

00:08:02.060 that he is divine that christ is the second eternal member of the trinity who at a real

00:08:10.400 point in human history took on flesh and dwelt among us and so john says there are certain

00:08:17.040 doctrinal truths that a person must confess if they are to have any sense of assurance

00:08:24.080 and confidence that they belong to God, that they are a Christian born again. So the truth test

00:08:33.320 or the doctrinal test, the test of a Christian confession. The next is the relational test

00:08:41.360 or another way that we could present this category is the love test. John explicitly says

00:08:49.520 that if you hate your brother, then you don't know God. You cannot claim to love God who you

00:08:57.460 have not seen, who is invisible, while hating your brother who you have seen. And so John presents

00:09:05.320 another test to examine ourselves to see whether or not we are in the faith, which is, do I have

00:09:12.380 real, tangible, practical love for my brothers and sisters in Christ, particularly in terms of

00:09:21.120 the proximity argument, those brothers and sisters in Christ who are right in front of my face.

00:09:29.280 People claim to love God, and they even claim to love mankind in a universal and ethereal,

00:09:37.280 theoretical sense. But often I found that the person who claims to love God and says that God

00:09:44.780 is love and I love God and I love mankind and humanity as a whole also happens to be a woman

00:09:51.840 with blue hair on her seventh marriage. She doesn't know what love is. She does not love God.

00:10:00.940 she hates him. And she does not love mankind. She hates people. And the reason that we know this

00:10:09.320 is because she loves all the people in theory that she's never met. But coincidentally,

00:10:15.280 all the people that she has met, she hates. And what 1 John essentially tells us is that

00:10:21.580 the proof is in the pudding. If you fancy yourself to be a loving person, loving towards God,

00:10:27.920 and loving towards your fellow man but you don't have long-standing healthy relationships in your

00:10:34.660 life that are tangible physical practical with people in the flesh people that are physically

00:10:43.180 in your life if you don't have any long-standing relationships like that then it is far more likely

00:10:50.380 that you are not a loving person then the alternative which would be i'm a very loving

00:10:56.580 person, but it just so happens that every person I've met in person happens to be incapable of

00:11:02.840 love, right? Those are the two alternatives. One is I'm a really, really loving person,

00:11:07.320 but everyone that I've met is unloving, or I don't know how to love. I'm the problem.

00:11:15.480 And what John essentially says is that that is far more likely to be the truth. If you hate your

00:11:22.260 brother, you can say that your brother is impossible to love because he's a terrible, 1.00

00:11:29.240 terrible person. But it's more likely to say that if you hate your brother, you are the person who

00:11:36.540 is not loving. And therefore, not only are you refusing to love your brother who you have seen,

00:11:43.400 but that is evidence that you also do not have love for God who is unseen. So that's the love

00:11:51.640 test or the relational test. The third test that John lays out in this letter is the moral test

00:11:59.960 or the test of obedience. So the truth test, doctrinal. The relational test, love, particularly

00:12:09.780 love for our brothers and sisters in Christ that we actually have physical relationship with.

00:12:16.140 And then lastly, the moral test, or the test of obedience.

00:12:22.260 John says again and again that the one who obeys my commandments,

00:12:28.860 the one who obeys the commandments of God is the one who loves God.

00:12:35.480 And if anyone claims to love God, but he does not keep his commandments,

00:12:40.900 he is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

00:12:46.140 And so John puts hands and feet to the faith. 0.58

00:12:51.120 He says that Christian faith and salvation and having a sense of assurance of salvation,

00:12:58.600 knowing that you actually belong to Christ is something that can be seen.

00:13:05.480 It is something that is tangible.

00:13:07.820 It's something that can be witnessed and it can be measured.

00:13:12.700 Now, this is not, for the record, I believe firmly, it is not a pass-fail system.

00:13:20.140 So I don't believe that if you're reading 1 John, that the way to read it is to say,

00:13:26.060 here are multiple tests laid out by the Apostle under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,

00:13:32.040 and if I don't ace every single one of these tests perfectly, then I must be going to hell.

00:13:37.900 That would be an improper way to read 1 John.

00:13:43.360 Rather, I think that in the mercy and kindness of God, what John is doing is this.

00:13:50.560 John is providing what I've coined as shotgun assurance.

00:13:56.560 Meaning he doesn't give multiple tests in order to say that you've got to pass 14 different assessments perfectly in order to have an ounce of assurance.

00:14:07.900 Instead, I think he's saying, as you read these tests and undoubtedly feel concerned and discouraged by your failure in some categories,

00:14:19.120 you can pivot and look at other tests and by the grace of God, detect that there's at least some faithfulness in these categories.

00:14:31.120 And therefore, you should have some assurance.

00:14:34.500 assurance of salvation is not pass or fail it is not as though the bible says that we should have

00:14:43.220 perfect assurance or no assurance 100 confidence that we belong to christ that we have truly been

00:14:52.240 born again that our name is written in the lamb's book of life or 100 assurance that we are

00:14:59.240 reprobate, the non-elect, and on our way to hell. That is not the way that the Bible presents the

00:15:07.120 doctrine of the assurance of salvation. Rather, it is a sliding scale. A person can have full

00:15:14.440 assurance, I believe, because I am not Roman Catholic. A person can, as the Puritans and

00:15:20.700 reformers argued, have full assurance of salvation in this life. But it is likely that for many

00:15:28.760 Christians, if not perhaps even most, we will have varying degrees of some assurance of salvation

00:15:35.300 at different points in our life. But I do believe it is normative, the will of God and his plan for

00:15:42.800 the Christian, that over the course of our life, as we grow in sanctification, so too we would grow

00:15:50.440 in degrees of assurance. So the Christian should have from day one, from the moment of their

00:15:57.800 conversion the christian should have some assurance and as the christian grows in

00:16:04.780 sanctification so too they should gain more and more assurance so it is not no assurance

00:16:13.180 and all assurance it is some assurance that is growing and multiplying over time and eventually

00:16:21.140 I do believe that the Christian can gain full assurance okay so in our letter today

00:16:30.440 what the apostle John is saying in this particular text chapter 2 verse 12 13 and 14 is he is saying

00:16:40.040 there are at least three primary stages in the Christian life there is the little children stage

00:16:49.060 Now, this can be a bit confusing because it's a phrase that John is keen on using again and again.

00:16:58.840 John references all of his listeners as little children.

00:17:04.760 It's a term of endearment.

00:17:06.620 It's an affectionate term that he's using as a spiritual father to write to all of his hearers saying that you are all very dear to me.

00:17:16.300 like a little child is to their parent father or mother so John does use that phrase little

00:17:23.980 children as a sweeping label to encompass all of his hearers elsewhere and his letters but in our

00:17:31.940 particular text today I believe that he is using the phrase little children to refer to the beginning

00:17:38.460 stage of the Christian life. Those who are newly born again. Those who are new believers,

00:17:47.700 new Christians. Then he uses another phrase, another label, talking about fathers. I believe

00:17:55.520 that this is meant to reference those who have been following Christ for a long period of time,

00:18:01.260 and those who have attained to some measure of spiritual maturity. So there are little children

00:18:07.260 on the one hand, those who've just started, just begun the Christian life, and there are fathers

00:18:13.840 on the other hand, those who are spiritually mature and who have been following Jesus for

00:18:19.240 quite some time. In between these two categories, there is one third and final label that John uses,

00:18:27.160 and that is young men. I don't believe that he's specifically referencing literal young men,

00:18:33.640 but he's using that label young men to describe both men and women who in terms of their literal

00:18:41.640 age their human years on earth could be old or young but they are all young men in the sense

00:18:49.980 that they are somewhere in between newly converted and spiritual fathers or mothers

00:18:57.220 who have been following christ for a long time so we have three categories the new christian

00:19:03.780 the seasoned mature christian and the christian in between and what's beautiful and encouraging

00:19:14.220 and comforting about our text today is that john has something positive to say for all three of

00:19:20.600 categories. He doesn't say, little children, watch out. You're in trouble. You have little reason to

00:19:28.120 be assured. You're probably not even a child of God at all. You're probably going to hell.

00:19:35.100 He doesn't say that. Instead, he says, even for the new convert, the person who has just begun 0.95

00:19:42.000 by grace through faith in Christ, the Christian life, the little child in the faith, he says to

00:19:49.040 them that their sins are forgiven and that they know the Father. Two things. Your sins are forgiven

00:20:00.440 and you know the Father. Two of the most ultimate, significant, vital, eternal truths that any

00:20:11.120 Christian ever needs to know. That your sins have been forgiven and that you know the Father.

00:20:19.040 That you have relationship with him.

00:20:21.480 And that he is in fact a father.

00:20:24.380 And not just a father, but he is your father.

00:20:29.100 Your sins have been forgiven and you have been adopted as a child of God.

00:20:36.260 John goes on to talk about this in the third chapter of his first letter.

00:20:42.080 Where he talks about, see what love the father has for us.

00:20:47.120 that we should be called the children of God, and so we are.

00:20:53.420 That when God calls someone his child,

00:20:57.360 to be called a child of God is so powerful

00:21:01.700 that it actually doesn't just change your description,

00:21:06.180 your title, your label,

00:21:08.740 but it actually changes your very nature.

00:21:12.060 That we should see the love of the Father,

00:21:15.280 how great the father's love is for us that we should be called titled labeled his children

00:21:22.440 and so we are that when god calls someone his child they become his child they actually change

00:21:31.720 in their nature when god speaks his word and calls someone from death to life from lost to found

00:21:39.720 From enemy to adopted child, it's not only that their title, that their label has changed,

00:21:49.160 but they actually become a new creature in Christ Jesus.

00:21:52.960 Their very nature transitions, that they actually become God's child.

00:21:59.700 They begin to think as a child of God and behave as a child of God.

00:22:05.920 And so John has three encouragements, an encouragement for those who are new to the faith, little children, an encouragement to those who are seasoned veterans in the faith, fathers, and an encouragement to those who are somewhere in between, young men.

00:22:25.900 In your notes, I've written this, the Apostle Paul achieved a level of sanctification in this life that was matched by few, if any.

00:22:34.740 I would argue that no one before or after, other than Jesus Christ, the God-man himself,

00:22:43.400 that no one before or after has been more sanctified in their earthly life than the Apostle Paul.

00:22:52.760 Therefore, it's safe to assume that virtually no one cared as deeply about personal holiness,

00:22:59.920 progressive righteousness sanctification as paul did it is also true that the corinthian church

00:23:09.420 possessed a level of spiritual immaturity among the new testament churches that was matched by

00:23:16.720 few if any therefore it's finally safe to assume that if there was any particular church

00:23:24.940 that the Apostle Paul would be tempted to withhold assurance from,

00:23:29.940 it would have been the church at Corinth.

00:23:33.520 All right, I've got premise one, premise two, and then the conclusion.

00:23:38.120 Premise one, Paul was really holy.

00:23:41.240 Premise two, Corinth was a mess.

00:23:44.420 Conclusion, if Paul was going to be hesitant about offering assurance of salvation

00:23:49.920 to any New Testament church, it would have been the church at Corinth.

00:23:54.940 You cannot say, well, Paul throws out assurance to people loosely

00:23:59.400 because he has low standards of holiness.

00:24:04.200 No.

00:24:06.060 There are plenty of false teachers

00:24:08.140 that are constantly handing out false assurance.

00:24:12.260 And we can say rightly of them

00:24:14.300 that they grant false assurance

00:24:16.720 because they care nothing for the sheep.

00:24:20.800 And they have plenty of goats in their congregation

00:24:24.080 that they also hate and detest.

00:24:27.240 They don't care about falsely assuring people

00:24:29.680 knowing that false assurance

00:24:31.360 is one of the leading motivations,

00:24:36.260 the leading effects

00:24:37.340 that would cause someone to go to hell.

00:24:40.260 What does Jesus say in Matthew 7?

00:24:42.920 Many will say to me,

00:24:44.820 Lord, Lord, we did this in your name

00:24:47.920 and that in your name.

00:24:49.220 Meaning there are a lot of people

00:24:50.720 who will be shocked

00:24:52.380 when they wake up in hell.

00:24:56.080 It's not just that there will be a lot of people in hell saying,

00:24:59.560 yeah, this makes sense.

00:25:03.000 Yeah, I figured.

00:25:06.100 No, many will say, what's going on?

00:25:10.180 I was a Christian.

00:25:11.300 And so false assurance is a damning,

00:25:16.820 literally damning offense.

00:25:19.520 The false teacher who grants false assurance

00:25:22.080 to unbelievers, but speaks to them and assures them that they are believers, a false teacher, 0.65

00:25:28.740 a false prophet, that person is damning people to hell. The Old Testament speaks of false prophets 0.91

00:25:35.540 in this way, condemning them, saying, they've healed the wounds of my people lightly.

00:25:42.620 Saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. They've taken gaping wounds and they've healed

00:25:51.300 them lightly oh it's okay you'll be fine nothing to see here nothing to be concerned about

00:25:59.760 so so handing out false assurance is a big deal but the point is that if there's anyone we can

00:26:09.280 trust other than jesus christ himself not to hand out false assurance it would have been the apostle

00:26:15.900 Paul. And if there was any group that, that you would be in danger of falsely assuring

00:26:23.980 that maybe could stand a few more corrections and warnings and less comfort and consolation,

00:26:31.480 it would have been the Corinthian church. So premise one, Paul doesn't hand out false assurance.

00:26:38.360 He cares about holiness. He doesn't have compromised standards. Premise two,

00:26:44.500 the Corinthian church was a mess radically immature they were in need of many warnings

00:26:51.700 many warnings and if there was any church that Paul would have been most careful with

00:26:57.500 it would have been them so the conclusion is whatever Paul says to the Corinthian church

00:27:04.440 that might be comforting or consoling I'm going pastorally to hold that as an ordinary standard

00:27:12.800 for comforting and encouraging and assuring my congregation.

00:27:19.040 Essentially what I'm saying is, by the grace of God,

00:27:21.900 I think you're better, Covenant Bible Church, than the Corinthian church.

00:27:26.320 And I know for a fact that I am less holy than the Apostle Paul.

00:27:31.280 So whatever standard, minimum, bottom line of assurance that Paul's giving to Corinth,

00:27:37.820 I'm going to give at least that much assurance to you.

00:27:41.200 So let's go ahead and look at what Paul does with Corinth.

00:27:44.160 This is 1 Corinthians 3, verses 1-3.

00:27:48.360 He says this,

00:27:49.880 But I, brothers, right there, that's assurance.

00:27:54.680 He doesn't say, but I, enemies, but I, neighbors, but I, friends, but I, brothers.

00:28:03.500 And for anyone who would say, well, this is just brothers according to the flesh. 0.73

00:28:07.780 Paul's a Jew. 0.99

00:28:09.320 The Corinthians are Gentile. 0.99

00:28:10.580 that doesn't work he is calling them brothers in christ so we can't even get past the first three

00:28:17.620 words without the apostle paul reaching into his candy bag of assurance and throwing it

00:28:23.680 at the most immature church in the new testament and again this is not a guy who has low standards

00:28:30.340 of holiness super sanctified saint immediately assuring an immature church but i brothers

00:28:39.040 could not address you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh so Paul has stark warnings

00:28:48.120 offensive corrections I couldn't address you as spiritual people that meaning those who are

00:28:55.480 spiritually mature so he's immediately saying you're immature you're carnal you're living as

00:29:02.040 those who live according to the flesh but then here it is again assurance as infants in christ

00:29:10.360 this is what you call a backhanded compliment paul in the book of first corinthians and second

00:29:19.560 corinthians he gives dozens of backhanded compliments you are immature babies but in christ

00:29:29.580 therefore born again and secured in your salvation.

00:29:35.100 Am I offended? Am I encouraged?

00:29:38.060 Not sure. Maybe a little bit of both. And that's what it should be.

00:29:41.420 Both. On the one hand, you're an infant.

00:29:45.900 You need to grow up. On the other hand,

00:29:50.020 you're an infant in Christ. And by the grace of God,

00:29:53.260 through the work of the Spirit and sanctification, you will grow up.

00:29:57.020 he goes on I fed you with milk not solid food for you were not ready for it and even now you are not

00:30:07.700 yet ready for you are still of the flesh for while there is jealousy and strife among you are you not

00:30:15.380 of the flesh and behaving only in a human way stark strong corrections a strong rebuke

00:30:25.680 but in it he rebukes them as brothers not as unbelievers not as enemies but as brothers 0.67

00:30:34.960 he rebukes them as spiritually immature infants but spiritually immature infants

00:30:43.380 who are in Christ going on now first Corinthians chapter 6 verse 15 through 20 Paul says this

00:30:52.300 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

00:30:58.280 Of what unbeliever could you theologically, accurately make that statement?

00:31:05.900 What non-Christian could you say,

00:31:08.440 Do you not know that your body is a member of Christ? 0.97

00:31:11.980 That wouldn't be true.

00:31:13.780 That would be a lie.

00:31:15.780 That would be offering false assurance. 1.00

00:31:18.040 For the unbeliever, they are not a member of Christ. 1.00

00:31:22.300 not in any way. But the apostle speaking to the Corinthian church, he is assuming conversion. 0.98

00:31:31.340 He assumes salvation. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take

00:31:40.380 the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never. Or do you not know that he 0.99

00:31:46.680 who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her. For as it is written, the two will become 0.94

00:31:52.620 one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual

00:32:00.220 immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person

00:32:07.120 sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body, here it is again, assurance, do you not

00:32:14.260 know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have received from God

00:32:22.160 you are not your own for you were bought with a price so glorify therefore God in your body

00:32:31.240 the apostle Paul again is saying you are members with Christ aka saved you have the Holy Spirit

00:32:41.640 dwelling within you. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, whom you have received from God,

00:32:46.400 a.k.a. Christians. And you were bought with a price. What price? He's talking about the blood 1.00

00:32:54.860 of Jesus. He's saying that Jesus died for you. Calvary, that price, meaning that your sin has

00:33:04.280 been atoned. You are again, a.k.a. a Christian. And notice what the apostle Paul says. He doesn't

00:33:11.160 say you're a christian so there's no problems you're a christian so everything's great you're 0.99

00:33:16.780 a christian so there's nothing to work on that's not what he says he says you're you're a mess

00:33:23.820 and you need a lot of help but what the apostle paul understands is this he understands that the

00:33:31.460 fuel for sanctification is an assurance of justification i'll say that again the apostle

00:33:38.440 Paul understands that the fuel for sanctification is an assurance of justification. And so he

00:33:46.040 constantly appeals back to their status as Christians. He says, you should live honorably.

00:33:56.240 You should honor God, not just with your words, not just with your minds and your thoughts,

00:34:02.040 not just your worship one day a week but you should honor christ with your flesh your whole

00:34:10.680 body by keeping yourself sexually pure but what's the motive for living in this way

00:34:18.380 because your body was bought with a price so essentially he says he says that the indicative

00:34:26.420 for sexual purity being sanctified in that area he's saying that that the indicative that is the

00:34:34.360 motive for obeying the imperative that is the command of being sexually pure is that you belong

00:34:42.720 to jesus that jesus died for you that you were bought with a price that you've received the holy

00:34:49.640 spirit what does paul say elsewhere about those who've received the holy spirit who have the

00:34:55.360 indwelling ministry of the Spirit. He says that the Spirit is given as a deposit guaranteeing

00:35:03.120 the inheritance. Meaning that the Holy Spirit, the presence of the indwelling ministry of the

00:35:09.800 Holy Spirit is meant to be another source of assurance. It's another way of knowing that we

00:35:17.120 belong to Jesus. That in fact we have been born again. And what does the Spirit do? What is one

00:35:24.840 of His many ministries.

00:35:27.740 One thing that the Scripture says

00:35:29.800 is that the Spirit cries out within us,

00:35:33.200 Abba, Father.

00:35:35.360 It brings us all the way back to our text.

00:35:37.880 1 John 2, verses 12, 13, and 14.

00:35:43.160 That the first category,

00:35:44.640 those who are new believers,

00:35:46.200 new to the faith,

00:35:47.400 John calls them little children.

00:35:50.040 What are the two things,

00:35:51.340 the two consolations that He offers to them?

00:35:54.220 number one your sins are forgiven number two you know the father you know god as father

00:36:03.560 and that's one of the ministries of the holy spirit is that the spirit testifies within the

00:36:09.920 christian the non-christian doesn't have the spirit but the christian does and for the

00:36:15.420 christian one of the things that the spirit does is he reminds us of our adoption that god has

00:36:22.800 adopted us as our father and that we are no longer children of his wrath as Ephesians chapter two

00:36:30.540 speaks of but rather we have been adopted beloved children children of his mercy see what love the

00:36:38.860 father has for us that we should be called the children of God and so we are first John chapter

00:36:45.360 three verse one so the apostle paul very holy guy to the corinthian church not so holy church

00:36:57.100 says you guys have sexual immorality among you and it's prevalent that's a problem this is not

00:37:08.820 a good sign. So pastorally, what should I do? I should tell you that you probably don't even

00:37:16.780 belong to Jesus and you need to get it together. You're going to go to hell. No, this is the 1.00

00:37:25.220 apostle Paul, not Paul Washer. Instead, what the apostle Paul says is you do belong to Jesus

00:37:32.860 100 and that's why you need to get it together you don't need to get it together so that you

00:37:39.800 might belong to jesus you need to get it together as a response of gratitude because you do belong

00:37:47.220 to jesus you were bought with a price not not if you get rid of sexual morality you might be bought

00:37:55.100 with a price you already were therefore honor god with your bodies you have the holy spirit

00:38:02.180 it's not that if you can be sexually pure as a reward for your obedience you might receive the

00:38:08.640 holy spirit no you already have the holy spirit by grace alone through faith alone in christ alone

00:38:15.120 so act like it you are members with christ you have union with him so don't have union with anyone

00:38:24.800 else. Don't pervert the union you have with Christ. Don't water it down and pervert it with

00:38:32.980 union with a prostitute, but rather be holy as he is holy because he died for you, bought with a 0.98

00:38:41.000 price. He's given you the Holy Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing, not just indicating that you might 0.95

00:38:48.100 go to heaven, but guaranteeing your spiritual eternal inheritance. And you already have union

00:38:54.560 with him so for all these reasons because you objectively have union with christ through faith

00:39:00.360 because he objectively died for you you are among the elect you are his chosen one and he's paid

00:39:07.480 for your sin and because you already objectively are temples of the holy spirit who you have

00:39:13.220 received from god as a deposit guaranteeing eternal life to come for these reasons you should live

00:39:21.780 like it. You should act like it. Now, I've got to go back and make a defense for my boy Paul

00:39:30.860 because I do appreciate his preaching. What I would say is that none of us are doing theology

00:39:37.880 or pastoral theology or preaching or anything like it in a vacuum.

00:39:45.180 We all have been placed in the providence of God in particular time among a particular people.

00:39:51.780 When the Apostle Paul is writing to the Corinthian church,

00:39:55.820 it's spiritually immature and carnal as they are. 1.00

00:40:00.180 Fleshly.

00:40:01.180 He says it explicitly.

00:40:03.400 But he also, in the same breath,

00:40:04.940 you're in the flesh, but also infants in Christ.

00:40:08.620 So you can be a genuine born-again Christian

00:40:11.300 living in a fleshly manner. 0.96

00:40:14.740 A.k.a. I do believe there is such a thing as a carnal Christian. 0.99

00:40:18.160 now it depends how you define carnal christian but all that being said the apostle paul assures

00:40:26.340 the corinthian church despite all of their spiritual immaturity despite all of their sin

00:40:32.040 all their problems sexual immorality is only one example in the first half of first corinthians

00:40:38.860 chapter six he talks about how they have lawsuits among them they can't get along they can't agree

00:40:45.500 they're wronging one another and the problem not is not merely that they wouldn't rather

00:40:52.280 allow themselves to be wronged but the problem is even more significant than that it's when they

00:40:58.480 have a disagreement they take it before pagan courts is there not anyone wise among you

00:41:04.900 right if the apostle paul was here today he would say sbc southern baptist convention is there not

00:41:12.160 anyone wise among you? You're going to take it to guidepost? You're going to take it to the pagan

00:41:18.300 court to come and rule in? It's fine to handle abuse cases. In fact, you must. And it's fine for 0.83

00:41:27.420 there to be legal ramifications. In fact, there must be. But the problem is that you keep going

00:41:33.240 to the peanut gallery. You don't need Rachel Denhollander. Choose someone who's a Christian

00:41:41.140 to weigh in you don't need the erlc which wouldn't know ethics if it slapped him in the face 0.92

00:41:49.800 why don't you go to those who are wise among you why aren't you guys going to tom buck

00:41:56.440 and tom askell why don't you go to the christian pastors in the sbc and ask them what to do

00:42:02.660 so the corinthian church was a mess they're going to pagans to settle their petty

00:42:10.920 disputes they've got sexual immorality they're living in a fleshly carnal way and yet paul

00:42:19.960 assures them infants in christ but as i said in terms of paul washer we are all products of our

00:42:29.660 time no one does pastoral ministry or preaching or theology in a vacuum we've all been placed in

00:42:36.440 the province of God in a context. And Paul's context, the apostle Paul, his context was

00:42:44.300 writing to a church that he started. And elsewhere, he talks about this. He says, I would rather

00:42:51.120 minister in a place where I started the work. Paul liked to plant, right? He mentions how

00:42:58.340 Apollos waters, right? I planted Apollos waters, but God made it grow. But later in 1 Corinthians,

00:43:04.960 the same letter chapter three chapter three he talks about as an expert builder I laid a

00:43:11.720 foundation it does not need to be relayed but he talks about I laid this foundation as an expert

00:43:17.840 builder and now it's being built upon Paul liked to labor in a place where he could start the

00:43:24.960 project and finish or if someone else like Apollos is going to build Paul would rather be on the

00:43:32.000 foundational crew, construction crew, and let someone else do the framing and electric work

00:43:37.620 and plumbing. If Paul was, he's either going to do the whole project or he's going to do the

00:43:43.440 foundational beginning work of the project because he wants to make sure it starts out right.

00:43:49.460 And so my point is this, when the apostle Paul is writing to the Corinthian church,

00:43:52.980 he's writing to a church that he started. He's writing to a church that he laid the foundation.

00:44:00.160 so what i'm saying is he's writing to a church that he knows in biblical categories is actually

00:44:06.580 a church whereas in paul washer's defense as a missionary often speaking guest speaking in other

00:44:15.320 churches where he has not laid the foundation and again in god's providence not doing ministry in a

00:44:20.740 vacuum but in a particular context so ministering in the 2020s in the american evangelical church

00:44:29.280 it probably is a safe bet statistically to talk to over half of the congregation as though they're

00:44:37.080 not christians because probably over half of the congregation is not christians

00:44:42.080 if you threw a rock and just hit an evangelical church in america at random in the year 2023

00:44:50.720 it would be a safe bet to say that the church that you just hit with that rock

00:44:55.600 has less than 50 percent converted members. You'd probably be right. You don't have to be a prophet 1.00

00:45:03.220 nor the son of a prophet to make that assessment and for it to be accurate. And that's the context

00:45:10.540 that Paul Washer is ministering in. So let the record state, I defend Paul Washer. The apostle

00:45:17.220 paul however is writing back to a church that he started he saw their conversions he saw people

00:45:26.860 baptized he preached the gospel and he witnessed people responding in faith so he's saying you know

00:45:34.740 better i know that you're born again i know that you are converted the problem is you're not living

00:45:42.160 like it. So let's live like it. And what's the motivation, the fuel for sanctification, living 0.98

00:45:50.620 like you're born again? A reminder, an encouragement, an assurance of your justification. You should

00:45:59.760 grow in sanctification because you have received justification so going on in your notes here's

00:46:14.160 the encouragement for every stage of the christian life beginning with little children verse 12 of

00:46:21.140 our text says i'm writing to you little children because your sins have been forgiven for his

00:46:27.020 namesake. John uses the phrase little children throughout this letter to address all his readers.

00:46:32.800 However, in this particular context, he is most likely using the phrase little children to refer

00:46:38.820 to those who are new believers. When John tells these new believers that their sins are forgiven

00:46:44.420 for his namesake, he means that their sins are forgiven on account of the person and work of

00:46:50.420 Jesus Christ. He is reminding them that their sins are not forgiven because of anything that they have

00:46:56.140 done. Forgiveness of sins on the basis of Christ's finished work is something that the youngest child

00:47:03.260 of God can and must experience. It is foundational to our Christian walk that we know that our sins

00:47:11.060 have been forgiven. John addresses this same group again in the last portion of verse 13 when he

00:47:18.840 writes, I have written to you children because you know the Father. As with the forgiveness of sins,

00:47:26.140 knowing God as our Father is foundational to our Christian walk. From the earliest stage of the

00:47:32.780 Christian life, we should know God as our Father. He loves us and cares for us far more than any

00:47:40.100 earthly father ever could. As John will go on to say, see how great a love the Father has bestowed

00:47:47.360 on us that we should be called the children of God and such we are. That's the encouragement

00:47:55.180 for little children the person who is new to the faith we've already discussed that the only thing

00:48:00.520 that i'll add on this point is if you're wondering what those three primary tests that john offers

00:48:06.820 throughout the entirety of this epistle the truth test the relational test and the moral test

00:48:13.720 the truth test being doctrinal relational being love particularly love for god as displayed by

00:48:20.500 our love for fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. And then the moral test, namely obedience to God's

00:48:26.780 moral law, his commandments out of these tests. If you're wondering what, which of these tests

00:48:32.140 could a brand new believer, I'm not talking to someone who's been saved for three years.

00:48:35.780 I'm talking to somebody who got saved this morning, first day of conversion. What test

00:48:42.160 could they possibly have passed in a matter of just a few hours that would be a sign that they

00:48:48.500 belong to Christ a sign of assurance the first test that every believer passes by the grace of

00:48:56.500 God and the spirit at work within them is the truth test the doctrinal test namely it is the

00:49:03.880 test of their confession their confession a confession of sin and a confession of faith

00:49:14.400 John says in his epistle that no one can say but by the Spirit.

00:49:19.860 That the Spirit of God is a prerequisite in order to confess that Jesus has come in the flesh.

00:49:27.160 So the person who is able to say, Jesus has come in the flesh.

00:49:31.160 He is the eternal second member of the Trinity.

00:49:34.640 And he is very God and very man.

00:49:38.800 He took on flesh in real human history.

00:49:40.760 took on a second nature not half man and half god but the full divine nature now veiled in the full

00:49:49.920 human nature and he lived a sinless life he died a substitutionary death under the wrath of god

00:49:58.260 on the cross and he was bodily raised from the dead on the third day and ascended to the right

00:50:05.180 hand of God where he is seated forever as our high priest interceding on our behalf and he

00:50:11.840 promises to physically return again to judge both the quick and the dead aka pretty much the

00:50:19.840 apostles creed anyone who can confess that has the spirit because only by the spirit can that be

00:50:27.880 truly confessed in faith in other words did you know brothers and sisters that every lord's day

00:50:34.960 when we confess we hear the word of God namely the law word of God the ten commandments the

00:50:42.280 decalogue read to us and then we confess our sin we receive an assurance of Christ's pardon

00:50:50.480 as from the minister as representative of Christ in that moment and then we confess our faith

00:50:58.760 what the Bible teaches about Christ the person of Jesus and what the Bible teaches about the

00:51:04.060 father and the holy spirit and the invisible and universal church and the communion of the saints

00:51:10.400 the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting amen when we do that

00:51:16.580 when we do that that is meant to be an example a moment of assurance for the people of god

00:51:26.300 I confessed my sin, I received Christ's pardon, and I confessed my faith,

00:51:34.220 a biblical apostolic confession of what the Bible teaches about the triune God

00:51:39.360 and salvation by grace through faith alone in Christ.

00:51:44.060 Every single Lord's Day, your assurance of salvation should be shored up.

00:51:49.800 meaning that if you walked in here this morning wrestling with condemnation because of sin this

00:51:58.660 past week all the ways in which you failed and you walked in to the house of God this morning

00:52:05.740 thinking man what what if I'm not even saved what if what have I just been going through the motions

00:52:12.740 what if all of this has just been an act what if I'm not a new creation what if I don't have the

00:52:18.860 spirit what if i don't have union with christ what if i don't belong to him what if god is not

00:52:25.140 actually my father well after confessing your sins receiving an assurance of pardon

00:52:32.440 and confessing your faith you should have gone from from doubting to believing and again not

00:52:41.280 pass or fail not zero assurance when you walked in and perfect 100 assurance of salvation when

00:52:48.420 you leave. But if you came in at 20% assurance, you should be leaving by the grace of God with

00:52:54.980 25, 30, 35, 40% assurance. You should leave the Lord's day worship gathering of the saints

00:53:02.480 more assured than when you walked in. More assured than when you walked in.

00:53:10.000 Another way to measure assurance, and again, this is for the little children. This could be someone

00:53:15.340 who got saved today who has been a christian for a mere matter of hours another way to to gauge and

00:53:23.200 measure another source of assurance would be this you confess your sins you receive an assurance of

00:53:29.980 his pardon you confess your faith and then i come up and preach the word and one measure of assurance

00:53:38.600 i'm not saying this is perfect because i'm not perfect i'm a sinner and because i'm a sinner

00:53:45.100 That means that if I could go a minute without sinning, I bet I could go an hour.

00:53:53.340 And if I could go an hour, I bet I could go a day.

00:53:55.580 If I could go a day, I think I could do a week.

00:53:58.180 If a week, then a month.

00:53:59.380 If a month, then a year.

00:54:00.480 If a year, then a lifetime.

00:54:03.700 And then I wouldn't be a Calvinist anymore.

00:54:05.640 I'd be Wesleyan, believe in secondness, that we can attain to a state of sinless perfection in this life.

00:54:15.100 But because I reject false teaching, sorry John Wesley, I am a Calvinist and I do believe the

00:54:25.240 Bible, which I know that's redundant. Calvinist, Bible believing. But because of that, I believe

00:54:34.100 that I am a sinner. I'm a saint at the very same time. I'm a new creation. I'm being sanctified.

00:54:41.480 I'm growing in progressive righteousness

00:54:43.660 all by the grace of God and the work of the Spirit.

00:54:46.360 But I will never reach a state of sinless perfection in this life

00:54:51.260 because I can't go one moment without sinning at some level

00:54:56.600 in my thoughts, in my intentions, my motives.

00:55:01.400 I have never preached.

00:55:03.380 What I'm saying is because I can't go a moment without sinning,

00:55:06.280 that includes an hour a week when I stand in this pulpit.

00:55:10.220 I have never preached a sinless sermon.

00:55:14.260 And because I've never preached a sinless sermon, no man has.

00:55:18.320 Because I've never preached a sinless sermon, there are, I'm saying all this as a theological disclaimer,

00:55:24.400 there are objective theological reasons to not like some of my preaching.

00:55:31.040 Right? Again, premise, conclusion.

00:55:32.480 Because I've never preached a sinless sermon, there are good reasons to not like all of my preaching.

00:55:39.480 Okay? That's a disclaimer. Now, on the whole, that's a theological objective footnote. On the

00:55:47.820 whole, though, the headline is this. If you are regularly walking away from the preaching of God's

00:55:53.700 Word here at Covenant Bible Church saying, I hate that preacher, and I hate his sermons, 0.99

00:55:59.540 you're probably going to hell. You're probably not a Christian. And that's not because I'm the 1.00

00:56:06.600 the gold standard of theological accuracy and truth, but that's because by God's grace and

00:56:12.020 His grace alone, our church is an orthodox church. And although I've never preached a sinless sermon,

00:56:19.560 by God's grace, on the whole, I preach the Word of God. And I do it reasonably faithfully.

00:56:29.140 And so, on the whole, not all the time, not perfectly, because I'm not a perfect preacher,

00:56:35.300 you can reject a few things here and there but if your basic assessment is i don't like any of

00:56:42.540 his preaching i hate it that's not a good sign so i'll add that as a sign of assurance if you're

00:56:51.720 coming in here on the lord's day and you confess your sin and you mean it i'm a sinner and i need

00:56:59.240 pardon you receive through faith christ pardon and then you confess your faith you confess i believe

00:57:07.920 in god the father almighty creator of heaven and earth and you believe that there is a god in

00:57:12.920 heaven who made the heavens and earth and you believe in jesus christ his son that he is the

00:57:19.100 god man that he died for your sin that he rose again and ascended to heaven you believe in the

00:57:25.040 Holy Spirit you believe in the one apostolic church you believe in the communion of saints

00:57:32.340 the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting and you can sit

00:57:38.680 through an hour of my preaching and let's be honest from time to time 75 minutes 80 minutes

00:57:45.000 over an hour of my preaching and on the whole in general say

00:57:49.400 he yells a lot but he preaches god's word and i love god's word what does jesus say my sheep

00:58:01.500 hear my voice that would be another thing that you could cite as assurance so my point is this

00:58:08.520 if from monday through saturday you lived according to the flesh you were carnal you're the kind of

00:58:17.660 christian like the corinthians that paul would have to address and say i can't speak to you as

00:58:21.740 spiritual meaning the implication there is spiritually mature i've got to speak to you as

00:58:26.800 a babe as an infant in christ because you're living according to the flesh and not walking

00:58:31.120 according to the spirit monday through saturday you live like a pagan but you walked in by god's

00:58:36.580 grace on the lord's day and despite all your failures and all your sin you heard the law of

00:58:43.160 god read you were convicted of your sin you confessed your sin corporately and you meant it

00:58:49.460 you received through faith knowing that you don't deserve it but in faith in christ and his finished

00:58:54.880 work alone received pardon and then you confessed your faith in the triune god in the work of the

00:59:00.320 gospel and then you sat through an hour plus of yelling old-timey religion preaching and you

00:59:07.100 generally liked it you're a christian more likely than not again it's not 100 percent

00:59:16.940 pass fail but there is a sliding scale of metrics and shoring up our assurance

00:59:24.380 examining ourselves to see whether we're in the faith and that's one of them it's the doctrinal

00:59:30.400 test the truth test now monday through saturday is still a big deal because those are the other

00:59:36.420 test the moral test obeying his commandments sounds like we got to work on that and the love 0.99

00:59:44.200 test or relational test loving our brothers and sisters in christ so if you were a jerk to your 0.99

00:59:51.560 spouse for six days short with your kids for six days not obedient to god's law for six days but 0.99

01:00:01.160 you did all the stuff this morning that i've already covered then you should have some assurance

01:00:07.140 but not perfect assurance you should have some assurance but here's the key that assurance that

01:00:15.040 you do have that's the fuel in your tank for growing in those other categories because the

01:00:21.760 person who will not be sanctified and i have learned this the hard way i have had seasons

01:00:27.840 of my life, as the Puritans would say, as someone who I do in hindsight look back and I believe

01:00:34.080 that I was a born again Christian, but I had very little, little to no assurance during seasons of

01:00:41.860 my life because, because I was living in sin. I was, I was giving quarter to sin. I was managing

01:00:50.280 rather than mortifying sin. And there is a difference, right? I've used this illustration

01:00:55.880 before. I was treating sin like Batman treats the Joker, right? Let's subdue him. Let's tie him up.

01:01:02.960 Let's hand him over to the Gotham police, right? Because they've proved to be real competent in

01:01:07.980 the past. And now, no, you just, with sin, you just kill Joker. You don't capture him. You don't

01:01:16.500 imprison him. You kill him. And that's how we're supposed to treat sin. But the problem is you 1.00

01:01:21.700 can't really kill a sin that you don't hate. The reason why we don't mortify our sin is because we

01:01:27.200 like our sin. That's why we keep doing it. And so I've had seasons in my life where I was harboring

01:01:34.160 sin. And as the Puritans would say, it's not as though I wasn't a Christian. Therefore, God is not

01:01:41.060 my father. But there is a category. There is such a thing for someone who's truly born again, but

01:01:46.400 they are living and harboring sin in particular area, despite they're resisting the conviction of

01:01:52.220 the Holy Spirit. And the Puritans would call it this. They would say, it is living underneath

01:01:56.100 God's fatherly displeasure. He is objectively your father, but you are in a season of living

01:02:02.000 underneath the fatherly displeasure of God. And that becomes a vicious cycle. It becomes a vicious

01:02:08.260 cycle because again, assurance of justification is the fuel for sanctification, mortifying sin.

01:02:15.400 and mortifying sin, sanctification, being able to witness that and see that is part of what

01:02:22.040 encourages us and gives us assurance of justification. It's a cycle. Justification

01:02:28.380 fuels sanctification and sanctification is an evidence for justification. I'll say it again.

01:02:35.220 Justification fuels sanctification. How do I get sanctified in the area of sexual purity? Well,

01:02:41.520 Paul says that it comes from justification, knowing you were bought with a price, knowing

01:02:47.760 that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, knowing you are members of Christ. If you're

01:02:52.680 doubting that, well, I don't know if I'm really a member of Christ. Maybe I'm not saved. I don't

01:02:56.580 know if I really have the Holy Spirit. I don't know if I'm saved. I don't know if I was bought

01:03:00.480 with a price. What if I'm part of the non-elect and Christ didn't die for me? Then it's like

01:03:06.520 like trying to grow now impurity and sanctification is like trying to drive a car when the gas tank

01:03:13.820 is empty. It's going to be real hard. And it becomes this vicious cycle of I'm struggling

01:03:20.120 to grow in sanctification because I don't have any assurance of justification. And I don't have

01:03:25.840 any assurance of justification because one of the things that first John says again and again and

01:03:30.540 again that you would cite as an evidence as proof of justification is sanctification

01:03:37.000 john says this is how we come to know that we have believed that we love the brothers the brethren

01:03:45.740 this is how we can know that we have come to believe that we obey his commandments this is

01:03:51.420 how we can know that we have the spirit of god that we confess that jesus has come in the flesh

01:03:56.980 meaning that each of these areas of sanctification,

01:04:01.340 sanctification in doctrine,

01:04:03.220 sanctification in love,

01:04:05.240 sanctification in obedience to God's law,

01:04:07.680 the moral categories,

01:04:09.140 sanctification in these areas

01:04:10.760 is the evidence that we can put our fingers on

01:04:13.120 and say these are signs that by the grace of God

01:04:16.440 I have been born again.

01:04:18.460 And that's not inserting works

01:04:20.480 into the gospel of free grace.

01:04:22.560 That's simply saying that if there's fruit,

01:04:25.460 that is proof that the root is there we're saved by grace alone through faith alone in christ alone

01:04:32.220 but faith will always work itself out in obedience faith and works it's not faith plus works equals

01:04:41.820 salvation no the formula is faith equals salvation plus works not faith plus works

01:04:50.500 equals salvation faith alone equals salvation and works meaning that if you truly have faith

01:04:59.520 in christ you have salvation and the proof of that faith is that it will work itself out in love

01:05:07.700 as the scripture says and obedience to god's commandments and love for god's people

01:05:13.260 so you have to have some measure of sanctification to point to to say this is why i have assurance of

01:05:22.880 justification and you have to have assurance of justification as a fuel in the tank for mortifying

01:05:29.660 sin and sanctification and sometimes a christian because of unconfessed sin would be a leading

01:05:37.500 calls and resistance to the conviction of the Holy Spirit can get stuck. And the beautiful cycle,

01:05:45.300 because it's meant to be a beautiful cycle, justification leading to sanctification and

01:05:50.060 sanctification, giving greater and greater reason to be assured of your justification, which gives

01:05:55.100 more fuel in the tank to be sanctified, which gives you more reason to know that you've been

01:05:59.480 justified, which motivates you more to be sanctified. This is a good thing. This is a

01:06:04.000 beautiful cycle. But when someone falls underneath God's fatherly displeasure, it becomes a vicious

01:06:10.700 cycle. A vicious cycle. John Bunyan was there for seven years with no assurance, little to no

01:06:19.340 assurance. He would look back and say, I actually was a Christian. In hindsight, he's able to say,

01:06:25.960 I was converted. But for seven years, I doubted it. I doubted it. Instead of justification fueling

01:06:33.940 sanctification and sanctification giving reason, giving, providing reason for believing that I've

01:06:39.240 been justified. Instead of that, it was, I don't know if I'm justified, therefore I'm not motivated

01:06:44.300 to be sanctified, which means I'm not being sanctified, which gives me little reason, little

01:06:47.940 evidence to believe that I'm justified. And it becomes this horrible cycle of falling further

01:06:53.820 and further underneath the fatherly displeasure of God, shrinking in assurance, and then shrinking

01:07:00.060 in sanctification. That's the tragic irony. The person who needs to be sanctified to be assured

01:07:05.820 more than anyone else is a person who doesn't have assurance and therefore is greatly the most

01:07:11.000 inhibited in their sanctification. You will not be sanctified if you don't believe that God is

01:07:18.180 your father and that your sins are forgiven. You will not grow in sanctification if you are

01:07:25.940 constantly severely doubting that god is your father and that your sins are forgiven because

01:07:32.020 that's the basis that's ground zero for catapulting you into obedience and sanctification so you will

01:07:39.760 not be sanctified if you don't believe god is your father and that your sins are forgiven and

01:07:45.360 if you're not sanctified and you're pigeonholed and stuck in a rut then you're going to have even

01:07:51.280 less and less reason over time to believe that you've been justified. You've got to get out of

01:07:58.020 that rut. And in God's grace, that's why there is shotgun assurance and not just one test that's

01:08:06.780 either pass or fail. No, it's a sliding scale and it's in multiple arenas, multiple categories.

01:08:15.720 So right now, if you feel like I'm under the fatherly displeasure of God, I don't feel a

01:08:20.900 sense of security and assurance and confidence in his fatherly love for me i don't feel necessarily

01:08:27.200 confident that i'm actually in the faith that i've truly been born again because of this reason this

01:08:34.520 area of my life where i feel like i'm utterly failing the test i'm not growing in sanctification

01:08:39.980 i'm not doing well i'm struggling to obey his commandments here i'm struggling to love the

01:08:45.920 people of God over there, then pivot and look at another test. And one of the tests that I

01:08:53.720 would encourage you to look at, I think it's the first one that God gives to us, is the doctrinal

01:08:58.300 test. Do you confess that Jesus is the Christ? In conversion, the first thing that we do,

01:09:06.140 regeneration precedes faith. But the first thing that we do after having been born again

01:09:12.000 by the work of the Spirit and the sheer grace of God,

01:09:15.440 one of the first things that we do,

01:09:17.040 having been born again and given the gifts of faith and repentance,

01:09:20.380 is we confess with our mouths.

01:09:23.460 We believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths

01:09:27.500 that Jesus is Lord and that He is Savior,

01:09:31.980 that He is the Christ.

01:09:34.000 And the Bible says that no one can truly do that

01:09:36.720 without having been born again.

01:09:38.820 the first test for someone who is literally not just hours but seconds someone who has been

01:09:45.640 converted for seconds already has something that they can point to and say by God's grace and his

01:09:51.820 grace alone there's already fruit that is that is being brought about in my life if in no other

01:09:59.980 area the fruit that's being brought about in my life is conviction of sin and a confession of faith

01:10:05.880 and that's why we begin our lord's day liturgy it's one of the reasons but it's one of the

01:10:12.180 theological reasons why our lord's liturgy begins with the reading of god's law a confession of sin

01:10:19.320 an assurance of pardon and a confession of faith so that when we go into the sermon the hearing of

01:10:27.060 god's word preached that ordinarily you would be assured that you are a christian and therefore

01:10:33.300 would listen to the Word of God

01:10:35.100 as though you are His Son.

01:10:38.220 You would hear God's Word as a Christian

01:10:40.760 because there is at least some measure

01:10:44.500 of assurance that comes

01:10:46.460 from confessing Christ.

01:10:49.020 If you confessed Christ this morning,

01:10:51.820 then you should have some measure of assurance.

01:10:54.460 So then take that assurance that you do have.

01:10:56.620 Don't focus on all the ways you've failed.

01:10:59.040 Take the assurance that you do have

01:11:00.760 by God's grace

01:11:01.680 and put it in the tank in those other areas and grow.

01:11:06.380 And grow.

01:11:09.120 The general disposition of the Christian

01:11:11.120 should not be a disposition of doubt.

01:11:13.620 Your Christian life, the ordinary Christian life,

01:11:15.860 is not like a little five-year-old girl

01:11:17.540 sitting on a grassy hilltop with a lily in her hand,

01:11:21.360 taking the petals, saying,

01:11:22.380 God loves me, He loves me not.

01:11:24.340 He loves me, He loves me not. 1.00

01:11:26.820 That is not the Christian life. 1.00

01:11:29.160 The Christian life is 1 John 3, 1.

01:11:31.200 see what love the father has for us that we should be called the children of god and so we are

01:11:39.580 you are a christian he loves you he loves you he loves you he loves you he loves you

01:11:48.760 deuteronomy i believe it's chapter 7 talks about us being his treasured possession he says this

01:11:53.980 is why i chose you not because you were great in number oh israel and you are true israel by the

01:12:00.200 way. Not because you were greater in number than any of the other nations of the earth, but I chose

01:12:05.240 you because I set my love on you. I chose to love you because I set my love on you. You know

01:12:12.140 essentially what that text is saying? It's saying this. God is saying, I chose to love you because

01:12:17.140 I love you. Why does God love us? Because he loves us. He loves us because he loves us, because he

01:12:23.940 loves us because he loves us because he loves us. Gerhardus Voss said, I am convinced that there

01:12:31.460 is never a time when God will ever stop loving me precisely because he never began to love me.

01:12:39.740 For the person who is not yet converted, there is an objective theological sense in which they

01:12:45.120 are an enemy of God under his wrath. And simultaneously, they are also still not a goat,

01:12:52.020 but a sheep. Not a found sheep, but a lost sheep. And they are a sheep that God has determined,

01:12:58.940 he has set his sovereign decretal love upon. Meaning that even before you're born again,

01:13:06.560 even before salvation, for the elect, God has always known you and God has always loved you.

01:13:14.600 We know that our lives are eternal in the sense that there is no mere mortal, as Lewis would say,

01:13:21.140 That we are going to live forever.

01:13:23.440 There is a life that comes after this.

01:13:25.820 But did you know, not only will you live forever going in the future,

01:13:29.440 but there is a sense in which you have always eternally existed, even in the past.

01:13:34.340 Not in an ontological sense, but you have always existed in the mind of God.

01:13:40.940 There has never been a time that the eternal triune God, who has no beginning,

01:13:46.880 there has never been a time that He did not know you.

01:13:49.360 and that he was not committed to loving you it was never a matter of if it was always only a matter

01:13:58.420 of when when and how how God in redemptive human history would bring about your eternal salvation

01:14:07.340 he has always known you and he has always loved you Christ did not die to make us lovable

01:14:15.040 entirely that is true but it is a half truth the reality is that christ the full truth is that in

01:14:24.180 his death he died to wash us by his blood atone for our sins fulfill all righteousness through

01:14:31.400 his act of obedience in his life and for that to be received by us through faith in that sense

01:14:36.640 Christ died to make us lovable, but he also died because we were loved. It's not as though God

01:14:45.260 hated us and only hated us, but chose to make us lovable. God was willing to send his son because

01:14:53.280 God so loved the world. Don't ever get too cool for John 3 16. It is still one of the greatest

01:15:01.740 verses in all the Bible. For God so loved the world. That means for this reason, the reason being

01:15:07.660 God's love for the world, he sent his only son. It is not for God hated the world, but he was tired

01:15:14.640 of hating. So he sent his son to make some of the world lovable so that he could at least stop

01:15:19.060 hating someone. That's not it. For God so loved the world, he sent his only son that whoever should

01:15:26.900 believe in him shall not perish but have eternal life god sent jesus to make you lovable but he

01:15:34.180 was willing to send jesus and make you lovable because he already loved you hated you as a

01:15:40.960 sinner on the one hand before conversion but on the other also loved you as his eternal elect

01:15:47.440 there is never a time that god has not known you and there has never been a time that in his

01:15:53.740 foreknowledge that he hasn't pre-loved you. It has only ever been a matter of when. When he would

01:16:02.060 save you. Not if. God will never cease to love you because God never began to love you. See what love

01:16:11.840 the Father has for us that we should be called the children of God and so we are. The ordinary

01:16:18.260 disposition of the Christian should be assurance, not doubt. It should be assurance. That's why even

01:16:28.920 in our catechism and discipleship and parenting of our children, we are not trying to disciple

01:16:35.360 them in doubt. We don't know if they're yet born again. We don't know the exact moment when

01:16:41.940 regeneration takes place and yet i am teaching my children as though they are children of god 0.51

01:16:50.460 i don't know when it's going to happen but i'm training them as pre-christians i don't teach

01:16:56.380 my two-year-old to pray our great enemy who art in heaven hallowed be thy name you hate me with

01:17:03.940 a fiery just hatred you are righteous no i teach my two-year-old to pray our father not mom and

01:17:12.340 dad's father not just jesus father but our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name do i know

01:17:18.920 and the objective theological sense that my two-year-old is regenerate and that god has

01:17:25.060 already adopted them as their father no i don't but i believe that it's only a matter of when

01:17:31.660 not if that if god wasn't going to save my kids he could have given them to my pagan neighbor

01:17:38.620 but he gave them to me and i'm not going to sever the predestinated ends of god namely who he is

01:17:47.220 pleased to save from the predestinated means of god the way in which he brings about that salvation

01:17:53.920 and god ordinarily throughout human history and church history in particular has predominantly

01:18:00.900 brought about salvation through Christian parenting. If you were born in a Muslim country,

01:18:08.780 statistically, you're going to be a Muslim. And if you're born in a Christian country, 0.53

01:18:14.220 statistically, you're going to be a Christian. Why? Because God saves through means, 0.77

01:18:20.300 the ordinary means of grace, preaching, parenting.

01:18:25.400 and that's the way that we want to believe we don't want to constantly model for ourselves

01:18:33.740 for our spouse for our children doubt we do not want to model that the normative christian position

01:18:39.580 is thinking that chances are i'm probably going to hell no no if that's how you feel this morning

01:18:49.020 then look to the objective covenant look to the objective promises of god

01:18:54.960 do you confess that christ has come in the flesh

01:18:58.620 do you confess that you're a sinner in need of grace do you believe that jesus sacrifice is

01:19:05.660 sufficient are you trusting in christ to grow by grace and sanctification

01:19:11.140 okay then you're a christian therefore now honor god with your lives

01:19:19.020 act like it. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your promises. And thank

01:19:25.120 you for the precious gift of assurance. Like Christian in Pilgrim's Progress, who's given

01:19:31.300 by the three shining ones, a scroll that represents his assurance of salvation.

01:19:36.480 There's a moment where he neglects the scroll and loses it. Father, I pray that we would view

01:19:41.680 the assurance of our salvation as something precious, something priceless, and that we

01:19:48.100 would guard it that we would take care not to neglect it to keep it that we would fight for

01:19:54.280 our assurance and that we would not allow into our our spiritual lives those things which zap

01:20:01.300 assurance one of the chief culprits being unconfessed sin i pray that we would be quick

01:20:09.220 to confess when we sin quick to ask for forgiveness and lord i pray that you would give us

01:20:18.000 an increased hatred of sin

01:20:20.660 that we wouldn't just manage it

01:20:22.660 or harbor it 0.98

01:20:23.840 but that we would seek to put it to death

01:20:26.260 to mortify sin by grace

01:20:28.920 and as we do these things by your grace

01:20:32.500 that our assurance would only grow

01:20:34.520 that we would have more confidence than ever before

01:20:37.920 not confidence in the flesh

01:20:39.860 but confidence in your work

01:20:42.700 in and through us

01:20:43.780 by your grace

01:20:45.220 by the spirit

01:20:47.600 We pray all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, your son. Amen.

01:20:52.700 Can I be frank with you for just a second right here at the end?

01:20:56.040 Look, some of you guys, you're financially supporting this ministry.

01:20:59.580 And from the bottom of my heart, I say, thank you.

01:21:02.500 I cannot thank you enough.

01:21:05.080 However, some of you, you just, you can't afford it.

01:21:08.780 In fact, some of you, you shouldn't afford it.

01:21:11.900 Let's be honest. 0.91

01:21:12.800 I mean, we're living in Joe Biden's ridiculous economy. 0.97

01:21:16.820 our nation and our totalitarian political elites lost their minds over the last three years 0.91

01:21:24.840 due to COVID. We have written checks that we simply cannot cash. It doesn't matter if people

01:21:31.780 change the definition of a recession. We are living in a recession right now regardless.

01:21:38.680 Some of you are struggling to afford a carton of eggs at the grocery store. You cannot support

01:21:44.980 financially this ministry at this time, nor should you, but you could still help us tremendously.

01:21:51.820 I am asking you, please, if you're willing to do so, take one minute of your time. Leave us a

01:21:58.880 five-star review on your favorite podcast platform, iTunes, Spotify, whatever that might be.

01:22:05.620 This is the way the system works. We want to be innocent as doves, but shrewd as vipers.

01:22:11.520 We need to be strategic.

01:22:13.780 You leave us a five-star review, and our podcast shows up for more people.

01:22:18.740 And the Word of God and courageous theology applied in practical ways to every realm of

01:22:25.500 life gets out there.

01:22:27.560 Help us get it out there.

01:22:29.280 Thanks for tuning in.

The NXR Podcast - March 27, 2023

SUNDAY SERMON - What I Learned After Years Of Thinking I Was Going To Hell

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