Love in Word, Deed & Truth—by Faith | 1 John 3:16-18

ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church

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Turn with me to 1st John chapter 3 verse 16.

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We're going to read verses 16 through 18. 1st

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John chapter 3 verse 16. God's Word says,

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By this we have known love that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

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But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?

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Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.

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This is God's Word. Amen. So, to do a brief recap and some clarification here from the past couple weeks that I've been preaching on, regarding the resurrection sermon,

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I wanted to clarify something that I mentioned, and that is, are we really justified by Christ's death rather than by his resurrection?

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And the answer to that, because in 1st

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Corinthians chapter 15 and verses 16 through 17, there's something important there that Paul says that we need to account for.

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He says, for if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless.

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You are still in your sins. So, this is an important argument that Paul is making, but what this really means is that if there is no resurrection, then nothing else matters, and everything else falls apart, because there is no end.

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There's no ultimate end and no glorification, and the golden chain of redemption is broken.

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So, this is like a catastrophic scenario that the apostle is painting for us, and depicting for us, and showing us that without the resurrection, really, nothing else matters.

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And so, he even goes on and says that we would have made

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God a liar and all these things. And so, that's what he's getting at there.

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It's a lot more catastrophic without there being any resurrection whatsoever. So, this is a different scenario.

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This is a different issue that Paul is addressing here through the Holy Spirit. So, the chain being broken, and those who have fallen asleep in Christ, who have died in Christ, have perished.

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Like 1 Corinthians 15 .18 also says. So, that's the point of that.

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But if now you turn with me to Romans 5, in Romans 5, starting in verse 9, we will see the clear answer there.

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Romans 5, verse 9, God's word says, much more than having now been justified by what?

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By His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

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For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through what?

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The death of His Son. Much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life, or in His life.

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Here you see the clear, very clear teaching and answer to this question.

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It is the death of Christ that reconciles us, that justifies us through His blood, sacrifice.

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His sacrifice on the cross. That's where it was truly finished. And that is what we must understand and cling to.

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It was finished on the cross. There was no need for Christ to finish, quote -unquote,

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His sacrifice in heaven, and somehow apply it to the heavenly mercy seat.

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That's not true. That's not the case. And it's also contrary to what

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Roman Catholics teach about Christ's sacrifice. There's a debate that I linked here that I encourage you all to check out, between James White and Joe Heschmeier, regarding the

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Roman Catholic Mass. It's a very good debate that highlights this issue between those two sides.

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Now, just like we sang in that precious hymn today, and this is really God's providence, because we didn't plan for this, but I was really hoping that we would get to sing this song, and sure enough, in God's providence, we did.

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Because what can wash away all my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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Amen? That is it. It is the blood of Christ, His death and His blood, that washes away and justifies us fully.

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Now, to clarify another point, again from last week, is that I was talking about false views of losing not just your assurance,

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I said assurance, but I also meant your salvation. There's others that teach false views that you can lose your salvation, and your justification as well.

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This is very much contrary to what the Bible teaches us. Totally contrary.

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It is not true. You cannot lose your salvation, and you do not remain safe because of mine or anyone else's preaching.

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So then, it does not depend on the one who wills or the one who runs, but on God, on God who has mercy.

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Amen? That is Romans 9 .16. God is the one who keeps us, not ourselves.

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Though we do have a part to play, God still is the one who keeps us and works in us. Remember too, that biblical preaching sanctifies the believer after he has been justified by God already, through the sacrifice of his son.

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The propitiatory sacrifice, past tense. Even though preaching might still save unbelievers initially, because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone who believes, like Romans 1 .16

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says. But preaching does not keep us believers saved or justified.

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Preaching is a primary means for our sanctification and of growing in the faith, not of staying saved as if we could lose our salvation.

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There's no such thing in the Bible. We cannot lose eternal life, and we cannot lose our salvation. So we must not over -apply and over -extend verses out of context, out of their immediate context, or their whole counsel of God context.

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Cannot contradict the Bible, either in the immediate context or as a whole. Instead of rightly interpreting

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Scripture with all the rest of Scripture, and with all the doctrines of Scripture, that is how we must interpret the

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Bible properly, which is the faith once for all delivered to the saints, like Jude 1 .3

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teaches. These are the analogies of Scripture and of faith that I've repeatedly preached on over and over again.

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So this brings me now to an important public service announcement, the first one of quite a few that I have today.

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Whenever we judge doctrine, and especially false doctrine, we must discern primary, secondary, tertiary issues, and so on.

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We have to discern their gravity, the importance of what's being said that's false.

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By way of reminder, we must understand that primary doctrines and issues all stem on essentially four basic concepts, four basic doctrines.

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That is God, man, salvation, and God's word.

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Those are the four of the most fundamental doctrines and central issues of the

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Bible. God, man, salvation, and his word. All of which have been central to many controversies going all the way back to the early church.

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In the early church, many of the controversies centered around God, the Trinity, Christ, Christology.

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Is he half man, half God? Is he fully God, truly God, truly man? Is he a hybrid? So there were many heretical views circulating, but they were refuted by the faithful church using scripture.

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And also of false views of man, like Pelagianism. Pelagius was a monk that Augustine refuted because Pelagius thought that we could basically improve ourselves without any need for God's grace, that God's grace was just a sort of a nice to have, a supplement, but not necessary.

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And Augustine refuted him by saying that God's grace is absolutely necessary for us to be saved.

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And even into the Reformation, where the two central issues of the

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Reformation were salvation. How are we justified? How are we made right before God?

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It is by faith alone. And on what grounds do we have to say the truth, to speak the truth?

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Where does truth come from? And that is the Bible alone is the ultimate judge and standard and source of truth.

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Not the church, not the magisterium of Rome. So that's extremely important.

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And similarly, the doctrine of assurance, which the Apostle John has been preaching, has been teaching us here in this section, in this chapter as well, is vitally important to the

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Christian life. The Christian walk. Our peripateo, like John has been saying.

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And it can be the difference between falling into the dungeon of despair, utter despair and depression, because of constantly not being assured and feeling like we're always condemning ourselves or never quite reaching salvation, or of being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ, of Christ Jesus, Philippians 1 .6.

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Amen. This is the full assurance of pardon, of all our sin, of salvation and joy.

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And if you want to be in the latter category, do not listen to Piper's preaching. Don't listen to false preaching that teaches otherwise, or at least be able to discern it as false, because it is clearly against God's word.

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Now, we know, like the Apostle tells us in 1

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John 3 .16, that our assurance is grounded in the gospel promise of God's love for us, of God's love for us.

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In 1 John 3 .16, God's word says that by this we have known love,

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His love, true love, that He laid down His life for us, on our behalf, willingly, because of our sin and saved us.

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Because of His great love for us, it was finished.

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And we therefore ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

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I love this verse, and this is a great memory verse too, because it summarizes very nicely what the

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Heidelberg Catechism and the Orthodox Catechism also teach. The 3G paradigm.

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Guilt, grace, gratitude. He laid down His life for us for our sin.

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That's our guilt. And by His grace, He laid down His life for us. That's the gospel, obviously.

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And out of gratitude, we therefore ought to lay down our lives for the brothers, because of what

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He has done for us. And so, the beloved

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Apostle, He continues admonishing us onto the next verse, picking up from the last part of verse 16, here regarding why we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

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In verse 17, we read, but whoever has the world's goods, let me back up and read the second part of 16 again.

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And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?

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So now, the Apostle is painting a picture of a jarring contradiction.

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This is a contradiction. A black and white contrast.

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And it is to illustrate the sin of hypocrisy for us.

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The sin of, especially of religious hypocrisy, Pharisaical hypocrisy, because this doesn't exist.

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There's no way that you can love God and hate your brother, and neglect to love your brother in that way.

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So, back in verse 14, that I preached on a few weeks back, we saw that John had also said, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers, like Abel did, and unlike Cain.

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The one who does not love his brother, in particular, abides in death.

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Not life, but in death. And he cannot abide in Christ and his anointing of truth.

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Those are mutually exclusive. So, we must understand that God's grace is powerful and transforming.

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It changes us. It conforms us to his image. And it grants us the ability to perform the good works that God prepared for us beforehand.

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Now, I want to bring something to our attention here because I initially misunderstood this passage regarding the phrase, the love of God.

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How does the love of God abide in him? The love of God here does not refer to God's lack of love.

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So, it doesn't mean that God does not love that individual, even though that may very well be the case, but that's not what it means here.

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What it actually means is that it refers to the lack of love, the lack of love for God, the lack of love to God.

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In the hypocrite, so God here is the object, not the subject of the love.

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Just as the hypocrite lacks love for the brethren. So, if you don't love the brothers, how on earth are we supposed to expect that you love

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God? That's what the verse means. I like how

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Gordon Clark puts it here. He says, if God loved

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David through his sin and granted him the gift of repentance, God no doubt loves unloving

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Christians and grants them repentance also. So, this is a Christian who, well, maybe, maybe a believer, but this is exposing those hypocrites who claim to love

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God and yet turn a blind eye to their brothers, to their brothers in the faith.

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Utterly contrary to the spirit and word of God. So, but God grants repentance as well, but there must be repentance when this happens because it is sin.

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It's a failure to love our neighbor and especially our brother. And also because just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

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That's from the very important book and passage in James chapter 2.

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If you turn with me there now, we're going to exercise the analogy of Scripture to bring this to light a little bit more.

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In James chapter 2, starting in verse 14. James chapter 2, verse 14.

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God's word says, What use is it, my brothers, if someone says, someone says, notice that word, he has faith, but he has no works.

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Can that faith, can that kind of faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, does that sound familiar?

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This is highlighting the same thing that the Apostle John is. And one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled.

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And yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body. What use is that?

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Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead by itself. But someone will say, you have faith and I have works.

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That's called a false dichotomy. It's not either or. Show me your faith without the works and I will show evidence, illustrate to you men, not

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God. This isn't talking about proving ourselves to God, but before men. My faith by my works.

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Faith comes first. Good works follow faith.

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Always. This is the way, the only way. And there is no other way to do good works.

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Verse 19, you believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe and shudder.

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But are you willing to recognize you foolish fellow? I like how the LSB puts that you foolish fellow.

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That faith without works is useless. It's vain. Was that Abraham, our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac, his son on the altar.

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You see, that faith was working with his works. And as a result of the works, faith was perfected.

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And the scripture was fulfilled, which says, and Abraham believed God. And it was counted to him as righteousness.

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And he was called a friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.

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And in the same way was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way.

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For just as the body without the spirit is dead. So also faith without works is dead.

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Amen. So James here expounds on what

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John states in the verses that we read. It's the same.

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He's drawing it out here in this passage. The apostle James. And that is why we practice the analogy of scripture, because scripture does not contradict.

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It's all part of the same whole doctrinal whole. And this is a critically important passage to understand.

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And that many abuse and distort because no.

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Once again, if someone says he has faith, that is a claim that is a profession of faith.

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But has no works, which proves that it is not a real faith. It's not a true saving faith. It is a dead hypocritical faith.

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A false faith. Now. Notice in verse 24 where it says that you see that is that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.

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And you will find Roman Catholics use this passage to try to refute Martin Luther and the

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Reformation, saying that, no, you see, the Bible here says that we are not justified by faith alone.

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The only problem is that the Bible speaks of justification in different senses. They are not all the same types of justification.

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There is a justification before God, and that justification comes by what?

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According to Romans five, nine, by the blood of Christ and faith in his work and death.

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Not by our works. And yet there is also another type of justification before men, not before God, but before men.

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How do you prove how do you show your faith in that? That's what the apostle is saying, illustrating here.

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Before men, we show our faith by our works. We show that we are not hypocrites by our works, our lifestyle.

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God already knows whether you're a hypocrite or not. We, on the other hand, need more evidence.

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We need to see evidence of that in your works. That's what this is referring to.

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And it's very important to understand this chain here, because there is no such thing as faith without works.

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True faith without works, because it says he challenges that notion. And he says, you have faith and I have works.

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And that's a false dichotomy. You cannot have faith without works and you cannot have works without faith.

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Show me your faith without the works and I will show you my faith by my works.

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That's how this works, according to God's way, God's word.

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This book and passage, critical book and passage, teaches us that faith without works is useless. Vain and dead, false, because it is a hypocritical faith that only professes faith, but does not actually believe the saving truth of the gospel.

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This is important to understand as well, because the apostle says, well, you say you believe that God is one.

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In verse 19, you do well, the demons also believe in shudder. But believing that God is one is not the saving gospel.

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Believing that we are justified by his blood is something in addition to believing that God is one.

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And this is what we must also understand. We must believe the gospel to be saved.

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And those who claim to have faith without works make God a liar. They make

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God a liar, because God regenerates and transforms the believer to the good works that he prepared for him to do beforehand.

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All of us. This hypocritical dead faith is not regenerated by the spirit of God, which grants us repentance and faith.

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It grants us repentance and faith and works in us to perform good works.

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For we are his workmanship, his workmanship, his poet, his poem, his poem.

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That's the Greek word. We are his poems, his poetry. God's masterpiece created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

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God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

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That's there is a process here. It's not just all you get saved.

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I don't have to do anything else now. No, you do get saved. You get justified. And God lays out good works for you to do that he prepared beforehand.

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There is a process here that God is fulfilling in us, like Romans 8 also says, unto our sanctification and our glorification.

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But God is the one working. It's not our mere efforts. And at the same time, however, we need to remember the other side of this coin.

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So there's the one side of the coin where faith without works is dead. But we must also remember that we cannot do good works unless we first have true saving faith.

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Just like Arnaud said that I read a few weeks back, it is a straightening about a choking of that upper spring of faith that makes the outflowing streams of love fail in their channels.

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That love cannot flow unless you first have faith, the spring of faith.

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Because in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything but faith working through love, through love and not the other way around.

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Faith comes first. Love follows. True faith.

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Galatians 5, 6. Again, because without faith, first and foremost, without faith, it is impossible to what?

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To please him in any way. You cannot please God and offer him up good works because your works are not good if you don't have faith.

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Your works are filthy rags without faith. All our righteousnesses are filthy rags without faith.

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It's all sin without faith. Anything that is not of faith is sin, like Romans teaches us and countless other passages.

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And we must remember that we remain saved and stay saved and bear good fruit because our sovereign, omnipotent, true and trium

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God of scripture is the one who holds you in his hands as well as his son's hands.

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And gives us the inestimable promises, blessings and gifts.

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Gifts, plural, not just one of salvation, but gifts, plural, of election, regeneration, repentance, faith, justification, sanctification, resurrection unto life, glorification and so much more.

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This glorious golden chain of redemption that Paul summarizes in Romans in the end of Romans 8.

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It is all because of him, all because of God and what he has done for us because of our union with Christ.

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Union with Christ. We have all the heavenly blessings because of him, because of the grace of the

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Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, the father and the fellowship of the

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Holy Spirit that is with you all. If you have faith and then works will follow, including repentance and mortification.

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That's also part of this process because we still sin.

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We still sin, but now we grow in repentance and holiness and in mortification and putting sin to death in our flesh.

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God, the father, has chosen us and given us to Christ. Christ is the one who finishes and perfects the good work that he began in us.

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Like we read in Philippians 1, 6, and the work of the Holy Spirit has sealed us and guaranteed us for our redemption and our up until the very end forever.

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All the way up until our glorification and these three are one and the same

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God who preserves us and causes us to persevere unto the very end.

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The very end or rather the beginning of the end which is eternal life with God in heaven and those who believe in him have eternal life now.

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Already it's not because of our works. OK, this is where Rome and so many false teachers twist the scriptures and do not exercise the analogy of scripture.

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Believing in him grants us eternal life already. You cannot lose it, which is our initial assurance of salvation.

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And he is the one who keeps us to the very end and works in us to perform the good works that he prepared beforehand for us to do.

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So now with all that established, now we turn to verse 18, our last verse for today, where we find the apostle admonishing us to love in word, deed and truth.

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Verse 18. Verse John, chapter three. God's word.

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Speaks little children. Let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.

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And truth. This verse is so powerful. It is such a powerful and amazing verse.

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And it's such a and it brings a much needed balance to our time, to so many of the imbalances that we see in many churches and views, theological views today.

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Little children. He's speaking to all of us believers. Let us not love merely with word, merely with word or with tongue.

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In other words, don't love hypocritically by only with tongue or with the word, but follow through and be consistent with what you profess.

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Like James teaches and like first John teaches in several other passages, teach, but also in deed, in action, in good works.

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And truth and truth. And what is truth?

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Truth is doctrine. Truth is propositions. Truth is sound doctrine.

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It is law and gospel rightly distinguished and applied. It is the analogy of faith, knowing and understanding scripture and the doctrines that it teaches us.

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That is truth. That is what the truth is. And that is what we cannot lose sight of.

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We have to understand that it is all of the above. It's not one or the other.

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It's all of the above in word, deed and truth. We are called to love.

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And this reinforces the same point from the previous verse in 17. It's the same exact point.

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If you are a true believer, you will love your brother. You will love your brothers and your neighbors and your enemies.

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Just like Jesus taught. Not to say that we fail.

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We don't fail. We fail in those things. We fail. We're not always consistent, but we repent when we are inconsistent.

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We repent and God is gracious to forgive us and cleanse us from all our sin and unrighteousness.

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So this, again, to be clear, this does not mean that our words don't matter.

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This doesn't mean that words do not matter to God. You know, because it says, let us not love with word or with tongue.

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For I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an account for it in the day of judgment.

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For by your words, you will be justified. And by your words, you will be condemned.

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Okay. So, again, analogy of scripture. Jesus clearly teaches us that words matter to God.

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Our words matter to God. The apostle is not contradicting that.

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He is saying that love must be more than merely words. More than just words.

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Just like James 2 says, oh, go bless, be blessed and be filled and not give him anything when he's in need.

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That's loving merely in word, but hypocritically and not giving them the world's goods that you have to share with him.

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So, so that Christ is very clear.

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Now, this is not speaking of us as believers because the condemnation, the judgment has been satisfied such that those who believe has passed out of death into life and shall not come into judgment anymore.

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Amen. Because Christ is our advocate. He's our paraclete. He's our defense attorney.

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He's not our judge anymore. And God is our father now, not our judge. So we have to balance these things out properly and understand them rightly.

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The analogy of scripture is so important with dealing with bookend doctrines and passages like this.

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Our words absolutely matter to God. And why else?

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Why might we say that? Why do words matter to God? If God himself, is he not a

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God of words? Didn't he give us the word, a Bible, which is full of words and doctrines and propositions and teachings for us to receive and believe and live by?

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God is a God of words. Did he not create the universe by the word of his power?

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God, words are powerful. Words matter to God. So let your words, your words always be with grace seasoned with salt so that you will know how you should answer each person like Colossians 4, 6 says.

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Amen. Okay. Now, really important public service announcement.

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We really need to understand this, especially in light of the distortions in many churches and movements today.

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You cannot divorce love from truth. You cannot divorce love from truth because you cannot love apart from the truth.

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You cannot love apart from the truth. Apart from believing the truth.

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Okay. True love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth.

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And that's not my words. That's 1 Corinthians 13, 6 from the love chapter.

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From the chapter that on love, the love chapter. In the middle of it, you see right there.

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Love rejoices with truth. You cannot have love without truth.

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And that is exactly. That is exactly what 1

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John chapter 3, verse 18 says. Let us love not merely with word or with tongue.

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Right. Not merely with word or with tongue. But also in deed and in truth.

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Indeed and in truth. It is all of the above.

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So, therefore. And this is why so many.

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So many. You hear so many influential people and leaders and church leaders and ministers say.

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Teach contrary to this. And it's a real travesty.

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People who try to prioritize love above truth.

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Love is more important than. Then doctrine, you know, doctrine divides.

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But love unites. Except how do you love without truth?

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Especially when we are called to worship God in spirit and in truth.

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Especially because Christ is the way, the truth and the life.

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You cannot have eternal life without the truth. You cannot have eternal life without the truth.

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It is impossible. Mutually exclusive. Which is what we just read.

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Now, I know I shared with some of you already. But we'll play a little game here. A guess who game. Somebody.

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Somebody pretty famous. And even in our circles. Said this.

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Said this in one of their messages. All your reformed theology and good doctrine.

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Will be annulled. If you do not out love. Those who oppose you.

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All your reformed theology and good doctrine. Will be annulled. Nullified.

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Canceled out. Worthless. If you do not out love.

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Those who oppose you. That was none other than Paul Washer.

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And. There's something fundamentally wrong with this.

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Fundamentally wrong with this. Because. Everything that I've just read.

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From 1st John. And from 1st Corinthians 13. Countless other scriptures.

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It contradicts the whole. The whole spirit of the Bible. And of God. True love.

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First of all. True love. Refutes those who contradict sound doctrine.

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True love. Refutes those who contradict sound doctrine. Those who oppose us.

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Those who. Why are they opposing us? Typically. Those who oppose us.

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Is because. Like the word says. We. Like Christ.

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Because Christ testifies that it's. The world's works are evil. That its deeds are evil.

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But ours. Are salt and light. And exposes their evil. Their darkness. It's a contrast.

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And so. False. Falsehood. And those who oppose us.

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Doctrinally. Must be refuted. With sound doctrine. Must be.

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Especially elders and overseers. Because they must hold fast to the faithful word.

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Which is in accordance with the teaching. So that he will be able. Both to exhort in sound doctrine.

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And to reprove. Those who contradict it. Titus 1 9.

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And you often find churches and pastors. Who only do. Who only attempt to do. Half of this.

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And they are neglecting. The other half of this passage. They only try to teach.

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Sound doctrine. But they fail or neglect to reprove. And refute those who contradict.

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Sound doctrine. You have to do both. You cannot preach the whole counsel of God.

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Unless you warn the church. Against the savage wolves. That are constantly creeping inside.

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Trying to subvert the church. And that is what Paul said. When he told the

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Ephesian elders. That he did not neglect to declare. The whole counsel of God. By warning them against the savage wolves.

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And against the Antichrist. Which are ever before us. So this is utter foolishness.

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To speak like this. And being able to do this.

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To reprove those who contradict. Sound doctrine. Those who oppose us. Obviously requires sound doctrine.

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Because that's what Titus 1 9. Just said stated. Says to us. It's explicitly stated.

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And that is what reformed theology is. It is sound doctrine. That is what we hope to.

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That is why we have the confessions. And the catechism. Those awesome treasuries of sound doctrine.

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That the church historic has handed down to us. Through its pastors and teachers.

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That came before us. True love rejoices in the truth.

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Which requires. And is grounded by the truth of sound doctrine.

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In order for us to love biblically. You cannot love a right.

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Without doctrine. Without truth. You cannot. It's very important for us to be able to identify.

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These types of very pious sounding statements. But they're completely upside down.

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The priorities are completely inverted. You cannot love without truth.

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Truth and sound doctrine always come first. Because from that follows everything else.

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Including right action. Loving rightly. How do you know how to love if you don't know what love is?

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Love is a doctrine defined by God and his word. God himself who is love.

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Amen. So. Rather. Rather than.

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We love truly and righteously. In word deed and truth.

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Because we have already been regenerated by God's grace. And by first believing.

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The truth of his gospel. And are consequently transformed.

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Into good trees that bear good fruit. This is the cause and effect relationship that we must all have.

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Rightly understood. That. Many influential leaders.

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Sometimes. Inverts. They make it backwards.

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They get it backwards. But again the analogy of scripture. From Matthew 717.

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Even so every good tree bears good fruit. But the bad tree bears bad fruit.

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A good tree cannot bear bad fruit. Nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

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Every tree that does not bear good fruit. Is cut down and thrown into the fire.

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So then you will know them. The false prophets and false Christians by their fruits.

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It's very similar to what James 2 says. But whereas James emphasizes the outward works.

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We must also understand. That. What is implied in James because he's saying.

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You have a profession of faith that is false. Because you don't truly believe. Our good fruits include our words and our doctrine.

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Fruit includes word and doctrine. That are a good fruit. Includes words and doctrine that are aligned with God's truth.

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God's truth and sound doctrine. In addition to our love and actions and behavior.

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Okay. That's very important. And we love our brothers by.

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Sharpening. Each other. Because as iron sharpens iron.

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So one brother and sister sharpens another. By our doctrine our words. We correct each other when we err.

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When we are wrong about. Our understanding is wrong about something.

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Because that will typically. That will often lead to false. To sin or to false.

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Actions or behavior. That are not congruent with the word of God. Now for the final public service announcement.

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This is very important. To also understand. From everything that we've seen so far.

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And many other times in the past. But in this in these passages. The Bible.

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We need to understand this carefully. That the Bible. Nowhere does the

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Bible. Contrast. The head versus the heart. Nowhere does the

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Bible contrast the head. Versus the heart. You will not find it in the

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Bible. But what you do find in the Bible. That God contrasts.

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Is. The inner man and the outer man. The inner man and the outer man.

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Like Romans 7 does. That's one contrast that you find in the

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Bible. Another contrast that you find. Is the heart. And the mouth.

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The heart and the mouth or the lips. For these people. Honor me with their lips.

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But their hearts. Their inner man. Is far from me. That's the heart.

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The inner man. It also contrasts.

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The mouth. What you claim or profess. With your actions.

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This is this is much of what we saw today. How the contrast is between what you profess.

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And your actions which may betray. Your profession. If it's not congruent.

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If you say you have faith. If you love. Merely with word.

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But don't but not indeed. Or an action or in good works. Then you're a hypocrite.

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There's a there's a there's a. Disconnect there. There's hypocrisy there. That is another biblical contrast.

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Our mouth. With our hand. Our actions. So. The heart.

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And the actions. That is. This is very important. Because you will find so many.

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People. Who try to sound pious. And they'll try to say. Oh you know. You may. You may accept.

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Christ doctrinally. Intellectually in your head. But you still haven't accepted him with your heart.

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It's like the Bible doesn't teach that. The Bible does not teach that. The Bible teaches that the head.

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Is the heart. In most cases where the heart.

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Word heart is used. It's referring primarily to the mind. Which is what people refer to as the head.

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Most cases it's referring. They are one in the same thing. There is no. There is no faculty.

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Psychology in the Bible. In the Bible you have the inner man. Which is the heart. It's everything combined.

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It's our mind. It's our will. And our. Our mind and our will.

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Our volition. So we have to make sure.

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That we rightly divide the word of truth. And understand the proper biblical contrast. It is mouth.

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And hand. Action. Inner man versus outer man.

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It's hypocrisy. It's all these various forms of hypocrisy. It is heart.

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Heart versus mouth. Lips. That's where the true contrast lies.

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The hypocrisy lies. You cannot contrast the head and the heart. Because they are one in the same. You cannot do that.

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And the Bible does not do that. It never does that. Okay. So. That's a whole other sermon in and of itself.

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You. This. This shows us really clearly here. Where the contrast. Fundamentally lie.

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According to God's word. Now. I want to close out. Today's message with.

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Ephesians chapter 4 verse 32. Through. Through chapter 5 verse 2.

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So if you turn with me there. To Ephesians chapter 4 verse 32. God's word beautifully.

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Teaches us. Instead of being evil.

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And doing all kinds of evil. Be kind. To one another. Tender pardon.

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Graciously forgiving. Each other. Just as God in Christ.

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Has also graciously. Forgiven you. Already. By his blood.

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Therefore. Therefore. Just like the therefore in verse 16. Therefore we ought to.

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Love the brethren. Therefore be imitators of God. As beloved children.

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Who belong to him. And walk in love.

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Betty Patel. Lifestyle of love. Walk in love. Walk in love.

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In word deed. And truth. Just as Christ.

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Also loved us. And gave himself up. For us. An offering.

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And a sacrifice to God. As a fragrant. Aroma. Beautiful in God's people said.

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Amen. Let us go ahead and. Close out with a word of prayer.

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Our gracious precious. Lord and heavenly father. We thank you so much for. Your words father

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God. We thank you for your precious word. And for all of the amazing. Truth and sound doctrine.

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That nourishes our soul. Our hearts. And that causes us to believe.

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Your gospel. Lord and your grace. And your law and gospel. Lord help us to continue to understand.

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These incredibly. Important distinctions. That your word teaches us. And to live in light of.

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This gratitude. And this grace that you have given us father. To live in light of that. And to love your law.

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And your word. And to seek to grow. In holiness and in righteousness.

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And to put. Sin to death. More and more. Through the means of grace.

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That you have given us lord. Through the preaching of your word. The reading of your word. The studying of your word. And the sound doctrine.

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That you have given us through. Through your faithful church lord. To the pastors and teachers. And ministers that have blessed us with this.

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Sound doctrine. With the faith that was once for all delivered. Handed down.

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To us the saints. We thank you lord. Help us father by your spirit.

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As well to love in word. Indeed in truth. In sound doctrine.

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We thank you father. We ask these things of Jesus almighty. All powerful precious name. Amen. Please contact us at.

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www .thorncrownministries .com And may the mercy, peace and love. Of our triune god be multiplied to you.