Have We Missed the Point of 1 John? (Part 2) | Theocast

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Hi, this is

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Justin. Today on Theocast is the second of two episodes around the letter of 1 John.

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Today, John Moffat and I talk about some of the passages that are often isolated in the letter of 1

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John and are used to cause believers to question whether they are really legitimate.

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We're going to try to do some faithful exegesis. We're going to use history. We're going to use the context of the letter and all of those good things to try to rightly understand the text.

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We really do hope that this episode today, coupled with the episode last week, is balm for your soul as you trust in Christ and seek to live for him.

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Stay tuned. A simple and easy way for you to help support Theocast each month is by shopping at Amazon through the

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Amazon Smile program. When you make a purchase through Amazon Smile, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to our ministry.

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To learn how to sign up, just go to theocast .org slash give. Welcome to Theocast, encouraging weary pilgrims to rest in Christ, conversations about the

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Christian life from a confessional, Reformed, and pastoral perspective. Your hosts today are

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John Moffat, who is pastor of Grace Reformed Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and I'm Justin Perdue, pastor of Covenant Baptist Church in Asheville, North Carolina.

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We are back with you to talk some more about 1 John, a very, very much talked about book.

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We get as many questions about 1 John as we get about any book in the Bible, 1

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John and James. I mean, those are the ones that people always are asking us about, particularly because of how those books have been understood, especially in recent evangelical history.

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We began last week to set up the topic for today.

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Last week's episode is a part two of a two -part consideration of 1 John. We talked about the book as a whole.

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We gave some overview material. We gave some background material pertaining to the letter.

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Why did John write this letter? What was the context? Because that stuff does matter if we're going to rightly understand it.

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We read at one point an avalanche of verses to try to communicate the pastoral, gentle, tender tone of the apostle, and how he is writing not to smoke out the fakers and unsettle the saints.

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He's not unsettling the saints. He's writing to comfort the saints, to bolster the assurance of the redeemed, and the people that should be concerned are those who have run off into false teaching, those who do not agree with God about what sin is and about how they're to live this life, and those who have ultimately ended up leaving the church and leaving the faith.

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If you've not yet listened to part one, we would encourage you to go back to last week's episode and listen to that before you listen to our episode for today.

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Because episode today is not going to make as much sense to you, it's not going to be as helpful to you if you don't have that background overview material in your backpack.

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We're going to reference it, so it's going to make more sense if you start there. Jon, what are we going to do today?

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Today, there's a lot of mic drop moments when you're in theological debates with people, either in books or sermons or on Twitter, whatever you want to put it.

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But in the Federal Vision, New Perspective on Paul, Final Justification, that sphere of theological realm,

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I would even say in some sections of Lordship Salvation, depending on who it is, you're going to drop these 1

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John passages, which we're going to look out this morning, or whenever you're listening to it, it's morning for us, to 1

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John 2 -3 and following, or 1 John 3 -8 -9 and following. These are typically the ones that are used, these are the big ones, and there could be a couple others, but we're going to use these as kind of like, this is what's mostly quoted.

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Same thing with James, Faith Without Works is dead. We did an entire episode on that, we'll put the notes down there.

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Completely missed context there. So, we're going to not just say, oh, that's wrong. We're going to do our best to exposit it, look through it.

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Again, intro, overview last week, now we'll dive into the weeds and deal with it. And this is an extremely important conversation because, and I will say this,

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I will pull this from last week's episode and we'll continue to use it today. John is dealing with two groups of people, those in Christ, who are safely in Christ in the boat, and those outside of Christ.

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Those who are in Christ are not in Christ by obedience, unless it's Christ's obedience. And those outside of Christ, outside of the boat, those people, they don't agree on their sin.

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They don't agree on who Christ is. And so John is separating those two categories of people. So that's kind of our introduction.

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That is big. A brief recap of a couple of things, just super quick. What's going on in the church context that John is writing into?

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You've got some false teaching. You've got proto -gnosticism. We defined it in length last week, and I'm not going to do that again today.

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But what that resulted in were people who thought that the spiritual plane was more important than the physical, temporal plane, and that what was done in the body therefore is of little or even no consequence, that what really matters is an inner kind of spiritual knowledge and enlightenment, and that that's what we need to pursue, and that how we live then doesn't matter.

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So that's clearly in John's crosshairs. He's blowing that up. He also is blowing up an early heresy referred to as docetism, which taught that Jesus only seemed or appeared to be truly human in the flesh.

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He only seemed or appeared to be physical, but in fact he was some kind of spiritual being that was manifesting himself.

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And so that's very clear that it's in John's crosshairs because of how often he reiterates that the apostles were with Jesus, saw him, touched him, how we confess that Jesus came in the flesh.

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So that's a big deal. And then secondarily, aside from false teaching that John is trying to controvert, he is writing into a context where there's been apostasy.

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People have abandoned the church, and people have abandoned their fellow church members and have left the church and the faith.

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And there's a lot of fallout and wreckage that that produces, as anyone knows who's ever experienced such a thing in their own church context.

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And so John's writing to these saints to assure them, to strengthen them, to reaffirm them, and to also help them think well about, like you said,

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John, this other group of people who didn't regard God's law, who did not confess that Jesus came in the flesh, who didn't think it was a big deal how they lived, and ultimately ended up leaving.

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So all that by way of context. That's the context, right? That's the context. So I guess we'll tackle the first one, maybe one of the kind of the big ones, right?

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So first John, let me pull this up here. First John. Chapter two and verse three. Yeah, but we got to look at the whole thing.

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Yeah, and we're going to do that. We're just going to do exercises and good exegesis here. So we'll start in verse one. My little children,

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I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the

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Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So right away, gospel. So good. We don't want you to sin, but I always say this.

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God expects you to sin, otherwise first John wouldn't have existed. He is the propitiation, the payment for our sins, not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

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And by this, we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments.

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Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whatever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is perfected.

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By this, we know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

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Justin, go. Yeah, you read a number of verses. I'm going to refer to even more.

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An exercise in context. So chapter one, beginning in verse five,

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John talks about walking in the light. There's no darkness in God. We want to walk in the light.

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Well, what does that mean? He then goes on to talk about how if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

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If we confess our sins, verse nine, chapter one, he, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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Verse 10, if we say we have not sinned, we make him, God, a liar and his word, God's word is not in us.

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So to walk in the light clearly involves agreement with God about your sin, a siding with God against your sin, a confession of said sin, and a trusting in Christ that on account of him, you are forgiven and cleansed from said sin.

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All right. So that's obviously there. Then you picked it up in chapter two, verses one and two. I'm writing this so that you might not sin.

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Amen. Come on. I mean, all the people of God from all time said, amen. Yeah, we all pray.

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Lead us not into temptation. Exactly. Forgive me for my sins as I forgive those who sin against me and lead us not into temptation.

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Like I don't want to sin. No. Lord, give me grace that I might not sin. Give me grace so that I might obey your word.

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That's right. I delight, delight in your law and my inner man, Romans 7, 22. Psalm 119 is chock full of language about how your law and your word is so good.

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I want to obey it. Why do I not? Because the flesh and the spirit are opposed to each other. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the

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Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. An advocate is different than an intercessor, by the way. So an intercessor, that's important.

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Jesus is that in an ongoing sense. He intercedes for us. But he's an advocate for us when we sin.

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That's a big deal. So when we actually sin, he advocates. He pleads. When we sin, not once we've gotten over it, but then in addition, he is the propitiation, the satisfaction for our sins and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world, anybody who's ever going to be saved or saved through Jesus, because he said he's made satisfaction for their sins.

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And so before you read these next verses, I want to state it this way. For those who agree with the gospel.

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Yes. For those who agree with the gospel, these next verses apply. Yes. And those who, those who agree with the gospel and those who agree with God's law, that it's good.

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That's right. You know, and who actually love it and want to pursue it. So then he says, and by this, we know that we've come to know him if we keep his commandments.

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And then he's going to go on and talk about how, you know, whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is perfected, but whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which

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Christ walked, we should seek to. He's going to say this later in chapter three. Anybody who hopes in Jesus will seek to purify himself as he is pure.

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Amen. That's because we are children of God. He, so he says in chapter three, verses one and two.

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But then he goes on chapter two in verse seven and following to explain even more what he means by the commandments.

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That's right. So this is critical. And this is so good. This is so important. Say what?

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We dropped the mic too early. No, I know. I mean, we're not done. We're going to keep going. Pick that mic back up.

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And it's not us dropping the mic, it's the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. You know, my point is those who do the federal vision slash final justification, they drop the mic too early.

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Oh, they do. Pick that mic back up and keep reading. Keep talking. Keep reading. That's right. All right. So verse seven, beloved,

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I'm writing to you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you've heard.

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At the same time, it is a new commandment that I'm writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

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Whoever says that he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light and in him there is no cause for stumbling.

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But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness. Just to be clear, right? Whoever hates his brother and does not know where he's going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

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Then, and I'm going to come back and explain all this, then very next verses, I am writing to you little children because your sins are forgiven for his namesake.

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I'm writing to you fathers because you know him who's from the beginning. I'm writing to you young men because you've overcome the evil one.

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That's right. I'm writing to you children because you know the father. I'm writing to you fathers because you know him. I'm writing to you young men because you're strong and because the word of God abides in you and because you've overcome the evil one.

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So he's clearly not writing to the redeemed to freak them out and to scare them. He is writing to say that those who agree with God on the gospel, who agree with God on the law, who see that God's law is good, who strive to conform themselves unto it by the spirit in Christ, not out of fear, but out of love and gratitude and joy.

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This is true of us. And what does he say that we need to do? What command does he absolutely hammer?

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He's echoing the word to Jesus from John 13, 34. That's right. A new command I give to you that you're to love one another.

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And John's the one who wrote that. I know. Isn't it wild, John? Isn't it wild?

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So this is what, this is what is often left out of the conversation. That's right. Do we just say obey the commandments, keep the law.

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And then we don't even go on to explain what John is really drilling down on. He's drilling down on the second table of the law, love your neighbor, and that is made manifest and obvious through how you love the brethren.

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That's right. And he, well, he sandwiches it too, right? He is your advocate. Yeah. He is your advocate.

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So, so listen, you've been set free from the condemnation of your sin by faith. Now you're going to agree with God on the, on the purpose of your life, which is to obey, and when you fail, grace is there to catch you again.

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And to love others. That's right. Uh, so many, I've mentioned this in SR last week, so many passages.

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I'm going to mention them again. Philippians two does the same thing. If there's any comfort in the spirit, if there's any comfort in his love, do you see what

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God has done for you? Then obey, but he starts with the grounding of Ephesians four, right?

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Walk in a manner worthy of the calling you to which you have been called. He's sovereignly called you into him. So you aren't doing this so that you can prove you are saved.

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You're doing this because you are saved, right? Sanctification is just as much empowered by the spirit as justification.

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Come on with it. Sanctification is the fruit of your justification. It's always has to be in that. Um, now, do our good works create for us a measure of assurance?

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For sure. Absolutely. That is, but it, because we're in Christ, we're in the boat, right?

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We are floating in safely by faith. As we do these works of love, we can say, wow, look how wonderful it is to reflect

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Christ. And man, does that encourage my heart that I reflect Christ in my life that gives me a sense of assurance.

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But you can never say, I know that I'm saved and I should have all of the confidence of my salvation based upon my works.

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Now, Justin, people will quote John for that very reason. By this, you know, no, you can't ignore everything he's said before.

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You can't. You can't ignore all the stuff about confession of sin and forgiveness. And Christ is your advocate. Christ is your propitiation.

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Christ is your righteousness. Then after the fact where you said the sandwich piece, but you're in Christ, you know, the father, you know, the truth.

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I mean, even the whole business of like, if the word of God abides in you, you know, um, that, that whole idea, he then sandwiches it by saying,

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I'm writing you young men because you're strong. And the word of God abides in you. That's right. I mean, he says that to them, but then here's the other thing.

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Context. Why did he write the letter? We talked about this last week, mentioned it again this week. He's writing to people who have been affected by false teaching.

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They've been around people who have bought into the idea that it doesn't matter how they live. That's right. Right. Because the sins committed in the body don't matter because spiritual enlightenment's all that I'm after.

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Okay. Well, John's clearly blowing that up. He's saying true believers, people who really have trusted

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Christ, who agree with God and his law and his word, people who are legitimate understand that how they live matters.

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That's right. Real, real believers do seek to obey God. They will fail, right?

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That's why we need Christ, but they do seek to obey God. And how in particular are we going to really pursue that obedience?

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We're going to love each other. And these people who have bought into the false teaching and oh, by the way, who have left you, have not loved you.

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That's right. I mean, that has to be understood here. That's right. So that's where the context and the purpose of the letter matter.

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That's where the context of the words on the page, as we've tried to demonstrate here regarding 1 John 2, 3 in a pointed way, really matters.

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That's right. Well, and I'll just want to compare this real quick to another examination passage, which

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I'm about to quote. So the third one I mentioned already. So Philippians 2, Ephesians 4, 2

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Peter, which we like to quote all the time. What is Peter saying? Verse three, right? God has granted to us all things that pertain to life and Godliness, right?

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He assures you. Peter creates the same thing. Here's the boat, go float in it, in God's sovereignty.

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It's his promises. Now, then he says from that, you're going to obey. But when you're not obeying, you need to understand why you're not obeying.

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You've forgotten you've been cleansed from your former sins. Then he says this. So that's the whole context. But then we ignore those passages and we just jumped to verse 10 and 11.

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Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities, you will never fall.

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2 Peter 1, yeah. It's where you still are. Keep reading. 2 Peter 1, 11. For in this way, we will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our

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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You're telling me that Peter starts with God grants you everything and then tells you your obedience is what gets you a rich entrance into heaven?

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Is the guy psychotic? Talk about the height of biblicism, right? Has he lost his mind?

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Let's pit some verses against each other. Right. You have to look at everything. Does he say that?

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Well, yeah, in context, what he means is these qualities of what has been given to you, right?

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Your fruit cannot sustain you. It cannot save you. So what I love about 1 Peter is he does the same thing.

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He sandwiches it. But in the middle of that sandwich, he goes, you need to agree with God about your obedience. You need to obey.

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But why do you obey? It's because of what you received. If you're new to Theocast, we have a free ebook available for you called

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Faith vs. Faithfulness, A Primer on Rest. And if you've struggled with legalism, a lack of assurance, or simply want to know what it means to live by faith alone, we wrote this little book to provide a simple answer from a

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Reformed confessional perspective. You can get your free copy at theocast .org

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slash primer. The emphasis of the apostles, not only is the status forward, justified forward, identity union with Christ forward approach, but their emphasis is always so unashamedly on how we love each other.

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And if that is not the emphasis of all of our talk of obedience, I think we've missed it. And I sadly see so often whenever you ask people, if you were hypothetically to ask people, what does a godly person look like or what's the mark of a

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Christian in terms of how they live? I don't know that love for the brothers and sisters is at the top of the list.

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And frankly, it should be. We'll leave that there. We're going to set that over here and we're going to move on because we've got other verses to consider chapter three, which is another big one.

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Do we briefly chapter two in verse 19? Do we want to explain that at all? Oh yeah. Before we go into it, go for it. Let me just do that quickly and then we're going to go into chapter three because that one's a huge one.

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All right. So chapter two in verse 19 is a famous verse. It's not so much used to unsettle people all the time, though I think in some ways it is in kind of a backhanded better argument for our side agreement.

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So John is talking about how, you know, many antichrists have come right in the spirit of the antichrist already in the world, et cetera.

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He says, they went out from us, but they were not of us. So again, there's those two groups of people again. If they had been of us, they would have continued with us.

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But they went out that it might become plain that they are all not of us. That's pretty, it's easy enough to see.

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But then verse 20, just again, the tone of John. But you have been anointed by the

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Holy One and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it and because no lie is of the truth.

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Who is the liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is the antichrist who denies the

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Father and the Son. And he goes on and on. So he's saying to them, there are those who have gone out from us because they're not of us.

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If they'd been of us, they'd have remained with us, but I'm not writing about you, just to be really clear. You know

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God, you have all knowledge, you've been anointed by the Holy One, you know the truth, and that truth is all summed up in confessing that Jesus is the

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Christ. Really good. I mean, so when you think about verse 19, read verse 20 through 22 of chapter two, because I think they're very encouraging and they make even more plain how

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John has those two groups of people in view and he's not writing to unsettle the group that he understands to be in the

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Lord Jesus. That's right. Here's who you are, this is how you view yourself, this is how you need to view them, right?

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So he's going to do this again. We'll just jump into chapter three. Last comment. So sorry, dude. No, it's fine. Why does that matter that he's writing these verses to these people?

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Again, these folks have been hurt by those who have left them. It hurts to be left.

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It hurts to be abandoned. Some of these are family members. Sure. And it's like, they've not been loved by these people and they've been hurt by these people.

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Both are true. And John is writing to comfort them in that, like, take heart in this. Like, here's why this has occurred, because they're not like you.

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You are in Christ, you know, and you know the truth and you confess Jesus.

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And I think that's huge for our understanding of the letter. So a great example.

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First John three is another chapter that's used. So let's look at it.

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You go ahead and tee it up. Just tee it up, John, and we're going to go. Here we go. So let's just start in verse one. So let's continue the conversation. See what kind of love the father has to give us, that we should be called the children of God, sounds tender to me.

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And so we are. And so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

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Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has yet not appeared.

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But we know that when he appears, we will be like him and we shall see him as he is.

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And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. To look to Christ is to want to be like Christ.

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It's wonderful. Now he says, okay, that's you. Let's talk about these other people.

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Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins and in him, there is no sin.

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No one who abides in him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning is either seen him or known him.

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Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous.

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Whoever practices, I'm sorry, whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil. For the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

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The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning for God's seed abides in him.

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And he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this, it is evident who are the children of God, who are the children of the devil.

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Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

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Now, so much is said here, but can we not see here's one group, here's the other group, here's one group.

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It's not one group of people. It's two separate groups of people. Yeah. Again, let's look at the way he teased this whole section up.

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You know, he begins with, see what kind of love, you know, the father has given to us.

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And it's, he's loved us this way so that we might be called his children and so we are, we are his children. That's right.

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So he's so obviously affirming the saints, right? That cannot be denied.

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And the reason that the world does not know us is that it didn't know him. So again, you've had people hurt you and leave you and probably mock you for what you believe and what you think.

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And the reason that's happening is because they did the same thing to Christ. That's right. Right. Okay.

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Verse two, beloved, we are God's children now. And then he gives a future.

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So again, the present and the future are linked together. This, in the whole conversation about final justification, I cannot help but think of texts like this in like Romans 5, one through five, the present reality of justification is clearly tethered and inextricably linked to the future hope.

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That's right. There's not, there need not be a wedge driven between a present reality and a future hope.

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They're connected because of how, because God's the savior. Last time we checked. We thus hope. He says that in first John. Correct.

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So we are God's children now. And what we will be is not yet appeared. What's he talking about? The resurrection, clearly. But we know that when he appears, when

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Christ appears the second time, you know, we will be like him. We'll be right. First Corinthians 15.

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You know, we're going to bear the image of the man of heaven. We're going to be like Jesus and Adam all died in Christ. All will be made alive.

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We're going to be like him. And then he says that we'll see him as he is. What a remarkable thought. You know, we're going to live with Christ forever.

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And we'll, I was talking with my kids the other night about this, because they were saying, we can't see God and live. And I said, it's true because of sin.

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We can't see, because I was explaining to them, whenever there's a vision of God in the scripture, it's God, the son, right? Like this is God. The son is the one who is visible, right?

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Who has a body and all these things. And so we're talking about that. And they were like, but we can't see God. And like, what does

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Jesus look like? And I was like, well, here's some of the descriptions. Ezekiel one, Isaiah six, et cetera, et cetera, revelation. But we can't see

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God and live. It's like, it's true. But when we're resurrected, where we're raised imperishable, incorruptible, we will see

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Jesus as he is, and we'll be like him, like what a remarkable thought. So John's encouraging them with that thought. That's right.

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And talk about comfort and not unsettling. I mean, there's that. Then he says, as everyone who thus hopes in him, who in this way hopes in him, for eternal life and resurrection, purifies himself as he is pure.

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Like you said, amen. What a great word. We seek to be on Christ. From assurance. Yes. Not to gain it.

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Exactly. Oh brother, it's gosh, this is such good stuff. Then he clearly pivots. That's right.

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Remember the context. He's writing to people who have lived with folks who have said, obedience doesn't matter.

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Doesn't matter what you do in the body. All that matters is spiritual enlightenment. And oh, by the way, Jesus only appeared to be physical and all these kinds of things.

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That's what they've been around. They're denying Jesus. They're denying the third use of the law. They're denying the law. So much. That's right.

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They're denying all of that because it doesn't matter. That's right. So then he goes in on everybody who makes a practice of sinning, which these people clearly had done.

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And some maybe in your midst still are doing, but these people clearly done. They practice lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness.

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Right. So there's a difference. Compared to the purity of Christ. Right. Those who are, who are purifying themselves and asking for forgiveness as they failed versus those who do not see the need to ask for forgiveness.

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Who don't even think there's sin in them. They just full head run into it and there's no problem. No. Which is going to help explain verse eight, like making a practice of sinning.

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I mean, that whole idea is here because he says practice of sinning in verse four, practice of sinning in verse eight, like you are living, this is your

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MO. Like I'm going to live a life of sinning because I don't think it matters because I've not agreed with God and his word.

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That's right. You know, this is not the. Those people do not have hope. None. Like if you, if you're living and these are the kinds of people, sincerely, like if we have a person like this in one of our respective churches,

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John, what, if they remain in that posture, what ends up happening? Church discipline. Right. To love them.

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Correct. To sober them, you know, and to, to wake them up from their slumber. Can I, can I interject here real quick?

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Sure. Because there are people here who are caught in sin. The Bible talks about this. That's where I'm caught in sin.

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It happens. So dear believer, if you're wrestling with your flesh, you're struggling. Listen, this is what the church is there for.

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Galatians six, two to pull you out of that sin. Right? So there's a difference between someone who wrestles with the flesh.

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Romans seven, Justin and I, we wrestle with our flesh. They're, they're listener. We wrestle with our flesh. We hate the sin that we do.

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We confess our sin all the time. We're always confessing. Right. Right. There's a difference between that person, which is you listening to this podcast and the person that says, nah,

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I can continue to live in this clearly unscriptural, God denying way.

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And it's okay. That person, John says you're doomed. Agree.

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So yeah, he is not writing. That's exactly where I was going, John. Cause we're on the same wavelength here. No, no,

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I'm glad you said it because he's not writing to the struggling saint who is grieved by his or her disobedience.

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And it's like Paul is saying, I'm a, I don't understand myself. Like, cause in my inner man, the regenerate part of me,

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I love God's law and I want to do good, but every time I try to do good, I see another law in my flesh, waging war against my spirit.

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He's not writing to that person. No, he's writing to the person. Like you said, who is entrenched in a position where they're either saying that may be what

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God's word says. Don't care. That's right. Uh, or yeah, that's what God's word says, but you know, I'm, I'm redefining it this way.

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Um, or I don't agree. Exactly. Or God says it's sin, but I don't think it is. And when that happens, that's why

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I brought up the church discipline piece because people that are even in the church that demonstrate that kind of an obstinate, stubborn position, that's what church disciplines for.

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I mean, you and I've had this conversation. I've talked with people who were sleeping with each other and they're not married. I'm like, listen, you're not agreeing with God on this.

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Right. Well, I don't know what the Bible says that I'm telling you right now, you don't agree with God on this and it's a problem, right.

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Or, or, you know, like, Oh, I'm, I'm married. I intentionally went out and married an unbeliever. Okay. Well, you know, talk to us about that.

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Was that a moment of weakness or is this something that you did intentionally and you don't even think it's a problem and it's like, well,

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I don't, I don't think it's sin. You know, it's like, well, the scriptures and our confession say otherwise. That's right.

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You know that, so that's, and there's grace, but repentance is what we're after. Anyway, I think that's clear enough.

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Yeah. We're getting to the end here. This whole section, what he's arguing for John is, is, is this thing, here's what the children of God are like, here's who you are and people that do this other thing, they practice lawlessness.

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They don't agree with God. They make a practice of sinning. But then verse nine is often overlooked here. That's right.

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What a comfort this verse is. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning. For God's seed abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning because he's been born of God.

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Look at that as, Hey, you will not go on making a practice of sinning if you're

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God's because he won't allow it, like his spirit wouldn't allow it because this is first Thessalonians five. This is

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Romans eight. This is Philippians one, six kind of stuff where God will see to it, right?

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He will make sure he will sanctify you. He is faithful. He'll surely do it. I'd love to read a paragraph or two from our confession, just related to first John three.

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Is that okay? Yeah, absolutely. So the second London confession, chapter 13 on sanctification has some really good words pertaining to this.

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It's pertaining to the center st. reality, but also to what we're talking about here. Sanctification extends throughout the whole person, though it is never completed in this life.

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Some corruption remains in every part. From this arises a continual and irreconcilable war with the desires of the flesh against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.

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That's 13 .2. Here's 13 .3. In this war, the remaining corruption may greatly prevail for a time.

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Okay. So hear that yet through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying spirit of Christ, the regenerate part overcomes.

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So the saints grow in grace, perfecting holiness in the fear or reverence of God. They pursue a heavenly life in gospel obedience to all the commands that Christ as head and king has given them in his word.

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Amen. Sounds like John. Then very quickly, 17 .3 in terms of perseverance.

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This again, there are saints who struggle and who are mired in sin even. Here we go.

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They may fall into grievous sins and continue in them for a time due to the temptation of Satan and the world and the strength of corruption remaining in them and the neglect of means of their preservation.

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In so doing, they incur God's displeasure and grievous Holy spirit. Their graces and comforts become impaired.

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Their hearts are hardened and their conscience is wounded. They hurt and scandalize others and bring temporary judgments on themselves.

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Nevertheless, they will renew their repentance and be preserved through faith in Christ Jesus to the end. That's what we're saying. Lastly, I promise this is the 18 .4

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on assurance of grace and salvation. True believers may in various ways have the assurance of their salvation shaken, decreased, or temporarily lost.

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This may happen because they neglect to preserve it or fall into some specific sin that wounds their conscience and grieves the spirit.

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It may happen through some unexpected or forceful temptation, or when God withdraws the light of his face and allows even those who fear him to walk in darkness and to have no light, yet they are never completely lacking the seed of God.

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That's John's words exactly. The life of faith, love of Christ and of the brethren, sincerity of heart or conscience concerning their duty.

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So they're never completely devoid of all this. Out of these graces, through the work of the spirit, this assurance may at the proper time be revived.

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In the meantime, they are kept from utter despair through them. You know, I'll just to comment on that.

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So it's important. The reason why we're reading confession is that our interpretation is not new. This is hundreds and hundreds of years old where we are helping to clarify what has been lost.

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Listen, I'm telling you right now, Federal Vision, New Perspective on Paul, Final Justification. Is Roman Catholicism repackaged in new wording?

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It's the same theology, just redone. So when people are using 1 John in this way, they're completely chopping it up and they're removing it from its original context, not only in John, but also

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I think of all of scripture. So these are important. This is why we like to point you to a confession. Justin and I are not saying, trust us.

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We're trying to show you from scripture and then point you back to history and say, this is how it's been interpreted forever.

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And so we're just in the line of good, faithful men who have been interpreting the word of God this way. Justin Perdue No, amen, brother.

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Good talk, dude. I mean, what a wonderful book 1 John is. I really hope for you, dear listener, that these last two episodes have encouraged your soul.

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Like if you've ever turned to 1 John or you've heard 1 John taught in a way that has eroded your assurance, like you're a well -meaning, you're aiming to follow

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Christ, you're striving after obedience, you're just failing, and you're grieved and you have a tender conscience. May this be balm for your soul.

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Justin Perdue That's right. Read it from these eyes. Justin Perdue Yeah. Read it with these lenses. Take the glasses of pietism and all that off and read it through this lens, which we would contend, as we've said over and over, is the correct way to understand the apostle.

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So we're going to record some more content. We're going to continue this conversation and put a bow on all of 1

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John and everything that we've been talking about for the last two weeks over in our second podcast that we record weekly called Semper Reformanda.

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Frankly, like we've said this, you know, truth in advertising, I mean, this is for people who appreciate Theocast and want to support us.

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There are some things that you get in exchange for your support each month. A second podcast is one of those, but people that are

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SR members are not doing it because of what they get. They're doing it because they want to support this ministry and we're very grateful for that partnership.

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So if you're interested in learning more of what it would be like to be a Semper Reformanda member and some of the things that you would have access to, including an app where we all get on there and encourage each other and post good stuff and answer questions, ask questions.

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John and I try to get on there as we're able and interact with people. You want to learn anything about that? You can do so over on our website,

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Theocast .org. John and I are headed over to record some more content. Hope to see, and we'll not see, you may see us.