Classic Friday: Assurance with the Tuesday Guy

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. Here is Steve Cooley with me. And Steve, what were you just saying a second ago? There's a little track here on my studio desk.

I said, when you start carrying around a rosary, I'm out of here.

Because I have a little track called How to Pray the Rosary. And then I took this little box and put it in front of Steve and it's the rosary.

I thought it was a rattlesnake the way it was shaking around there.

Now, I said something on the air about this the other day. This was picked up at the Divine Mercy gift shop in Israel. But it's got dollars written on there. It doesn't have the NIL, the New Israeli Shekel or whatever it is, NSL.

What's that name like, just an image? It's a sturdy rosary from the Holy Land.

Oh, that's awesome.

It's sturdy.

That's awesome. Some rosary radio right here.

I said this a while ago and you probably heard me tell the story, Steve. I was in the hospital a couple years ago with the COVID problem. And a lot of things go through your mind. Do I have enough faith?

Am I really a Christian? Eternity is a long time.

Where's my rosary?

Where's my rosary? I try not to watch TV all day, just at night. And there was a lot of football games on and I'm just flipping through the channels. It's 11 o 'clock at night. I'm waiting for the next medicine or something.

By the way, my arms made me look like I was a heroin addict or something. They took so many blood tests. All that to say, I turned on one station. It was a prosperity preacher. And I said, I don't believe in that.

Whatever I believe in, it's not that. Send money to Jesus. Here's my address. And then I clicked the station and there was a lady doing the rosary over and over. And the Hail Mary's over and over. I thought, I don't believe that either.

So instead of how much faith do you have? It turned into, well, I do believe that Jesus was really the God-man. He really died on the cross, rose from the dead. I believe that.

How many times did you watch him do the rosary? Come on, tell the truth.

I actually videotaped some of it because the only thing I had was a phone. I didn't even have a cord. Scott Fair brought in a phone cord for me because I couldn't even charge my phone. How do you interact with the world?

Can't.

I know.

Thanks, Scott.

So, Steve, it's been a while since you've been in the studio because I was gone. And then when I got back, you were gone. What's new with you? I don't think the folks at NOCO have heard from you for months.

Years, maybe. What is new with me?

I don't know.

You know, just kind of shuffling through life.

You look thin. You look in shape.

I feel fat.

That's the show today.

Ride us.

Thanks for listening. Well, I mean, it's true.

I do, you know. I mean, I had pancakes for breakfast this morning.

Seriously?

Yeah.

Do we have protein kind, though?

You know what's funny? This is a funny thing because I have like about four or five packages of protein pancakes. So, she made pancakes from scratch this morning with like extra fiber. Don't ask me why because I would have been perfectly happy with the, you know, the protein pancakes where you just add a little water in there or whatever.

But that's not what I got. True story, though. True story. I'm thankful for the pancakes the Lord provided. True story. While we were on vacation in Vermont, we went to this coffee shop. And Jerry and I, my son-in-law, and I went in there and I'm standing in line and they've got this syrup there and it's coffee-infused syrup.

And I thought, I'm just going to buy a bottle of this. It comes in this beautiful glass bottle.

They get more money that way if it's a beautiful bottle.

Oh, man.

It's so pretty. So, I got it at home, tried some. Man, oh, man. It is the best.

So good.

So, I went online and ordered some more, right? So, somebody emailed me yesterday, said, well, how much maple syrup do you have at home? And I'm going, you don't even want to know because I just ordered from this place.

So, I got, like, two coffee-infused, one pineapple upside-down cake-infused, one, I think, a cinnamon vanilla-infused, and then some, like, extra maple-y stuff. And, oh, it's so good.

Well, we should probably get to the topic at hand, but I do want you to know that when I was growing up, I never had any coffee-infused Aunt Jemima. I know a guy, he is old-school bicyclist, and instead of any protein, electrolyte, any kind of stuff to put in his water bottle when he bicycles, he just puts in some salt and some maple syrup because he gets a little sugar in there and the salt, and off he goes.

Perfect.

Old school.

Yeah.

Assurance and Looking to Christ

Steve, today, we'd like to talk about God. Okay.

I think we can squeeze that in today.

As you know, we've talked regularly about assurance with the root word of assure, sure. There's a couple books that I've put together, just other people have written topics on the topic of assurance and put it together in the book Gospel Assurance.

We know about that. It's a NoCo product. And so, I want to ask you some questions today, Steve, to shake your faith to the core.

That's right.

That's exactly right. And so, obviously, for the disclaimers, there is a time to look to yourself and say, oh, the scriptures say, confess your sins and I confess my sins.

Right?

That kind of the reformed syllogism and go, oh, then I see the work of the Spirit of God in my life and that's one of the ways I can tell I'm a Christian.

Right?

Okay.

But mainly and objectively, we look outside of ourselves and we look with faith to the Lord Jesus, and that's the best way for assurance, looking to the Lord Jesus.

Would you say that's true?

The object of our faith.

Okay, perfect. So, online somebody put together a little list that I found on Twitter, and it's based on 1 John, kind of the test version of 1 John that I wouldn't happen to hold to. But anyway, I'm going to ask you.

But you did.

I did.

True confessions. So did I.

Well, yeah, I also was eternal functional subordination too.

Those were the days, huh?

Why is it now, Steve, that my theology is better, but my health is worse? Right? My nose is all plugged up. They can't figure it out. Did the allergy test. They all came back negative. I can plug my nose now and unplug it and it basically sounds the same.

It's kind of a slide thing. That's how the Lord works. The better your theology gets, the worse your health is. The worse your theology is, the better your health is.

So look at it that way.

So I want to know if you're saved or not, Steve. So I want to know, do you walk in the light?

Only when I have to because I like to keep my power bills down. Oh, you mean spiritual light.

Okay.

How much do I need to walk in the light?

Yeah, more. That's the answer to every one of these things. You want to know how much? I'm going to tell you more. It's N plus 1. Remember back in math? Can you explain N and N plus 1 to the folks here?

Sure.

N is a number and then N plus 1 is the number plus 1.

Hey, I think I just did it.

I did not know. N was a number. I just thought it was something. I didn't know what it signified.

I forgot.

Well, I can imagine what your math scores were like.

In junior high and in high school with algebra, straight A's.

Really?

Yeah.

Then I got to college.

And you forgot what N and N plus 1 were.

I got bad grades even when I cheated in college. I didn't have to cheat in high school. It was pretty easy. I went to school in Nebraska, remember?

The town of Lincoln, Nebraska. Oh, probably Omaha.

Omaha, yeah.

I did go to Stinkin' Lincoln for college though.

Yeah.

Can you remember anything you learned? Did you go to college classes at all?

Well, I went to college pretty much all over the state of California.

I think you got your bachelor's degree later in life, didn't you?

Yeah.

Well, I started at USC straight out of high school.

Okay.

That's why you like the Trojans.

Well, I liked them since I was probably 11 or 12.

Did you ever like the UCLA football team?

No.

Did you ever like the USC basketball team?

No.

Then what is the problem?

It's so weird, isn't it?

All right. Next, do you, Steve Cooley, consistently confess your sins?

Consistently. That's a funny word. What does that mean? Like all my waking hours? What does that mean exactly? Because do I confess on a regular basis?

Yes.

Okay. But maybe you're inconsistently confessing sins.

Yeah.

I don't know what consistently means. I mean, that really is difficult for me because if you said, you know, have you confessed your sins in the last hour? I'd have to say no to that.

Yeah.

Right?

Now, did I confess since I've woken up this morning?

Yes.

Seriously?

Yeah.

Oh, nice. I don't think I have all day today.

Well, I guess I'm just holier than thou, you know?

Well, I got up and I was sweet to my wife and I read my Bible. Does that count?

Yeah.

Does that make up for the lack of confession?

I don't think so because it's not on the list.

Well, I want it to be on the list.

Sorry.

Do you read your Bible in the morning? Okay. Do you regularly keep his commands?

Which commands?

In one sense, and I know this part's probably not fair. It's like the horoscope where you just can—things are just so general.

Yeah.

And you're like, well—.

Can we zoom in a little bit?

Yeah.

Does that apply to me? That's correct. And that's one of the issues here when it comes to people saying in a pietistic, look-at-yourself way, how much obedience do I have to have in order to call myself a Christian or to have assurance?

So, don't you think it'd be better if you had a desire to do these things? A longing, a yearning for more holiness and more godliness?

Yes.

And, you know, I mean, it's just—I mean, as I even just think about that question, you know, which commandments and when and, you know, do I—I mean, as I'm driving here today and people are doing the things that they usually do in cars here in New England, which is drive awfully and do inexplicable things, you know, sometimes I'm just like—I don't even know why anybody would do that.

You know, like pull as far to the left as you can before you make a right-hand turn.

That's to give the bicyclists plenty of room.

I mean, there are things I see on a regular basis or, you know, I'm just going to pull out here and hope that everybody stops and if they don't stop, well, it's their fault because they hit me. And if they do stop, then I'm just blocking traffic, which is the only way I can get out of this parking lot.

People do things like that all the time, but, you know, when I see that, do I think, oh, I just love the way you did that, you know, or oh, you know, if only I could get you in my passenger seat to give you the gospel.

I don't think like that, right? So, in that sense, no, I'm not keeping the commandments.

Okay.

I don't love people as I should.

How can you call yourself a Christian then?

I don't know.

You know, that's kind of the main ministry of No Compromise Radio. You think you're a Christian? Prove it.

Thanks for joining us here today. This is Steve Cooley signing off.

1 John 2:1-2 and Christ Our Advocate

Listen to what I think is the hub and the center and the kind of forgotten part of 1 John. It's chapter 2, verses 1 and 2. My little children who think they're Christians, but they're really not.

I'm just kidding.

I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have present tense and advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Those verses aren't in the best text.

Don't.

Don't. All right, next. This gives you assurance according to this person and their view of 1 John in the test. Do you regularly keep his commands?

Well, I think we've already established that I don't.

Okay.

Which commands and, you know, here's the problem. If I say yes, then I'm arrogant. And if I say no, then I'm either an antinomian, right? In other words, I think the law doesn't pertain to me and obedience isn't important.

Or I'm just a sinner. And, you know, the answer is I'm not against the law, but I fail to keep the law. The good news is that Jesus Christ obeyed my stead. That's the good news. The good news isn't what I do.

It's what Jesus did.

Perfect.

And so, let's tie this into the whole discussion, Steve, and we were talking before the show about it. Of course, if people talk about Jesus lived, buried, died, rose from the dead, ascended, interceding now, and they talk about the Lord, and then they tell people, in light of that, be obedient.

There's truth to that, right? Jesus died, and, you know, we're being conformed to the image of the Son, Romans 8, etc., etc. But what's missing so often, I think, at least in my old preaching, and I hope it's not true now, but in many preachers that we see online, that people that really want obedience and godliness, which we do too, they forget about the Spirit's role in the life of the believer.

In other words, Christ for pardon and Christ for power because he wasn't going to leave them as orphans. He gives them the Holy Spirit so they can do these things. They can desire to do these things.

The Spirit, Romans 7, and the Believer's Resistance

Yeah.

I mean, the idea that I'm indifferent to law or that my conscience has been seared, well, those are both wrong. The truth is more like Paul in Romans 7. I do the things I don't want to do, and I don't do the things I want to do.

But thankfully, the Holy Spirit is at work in me to do his will, right? I mean, this is and, you know, we were talking about this off the air. You know, what's my contribution? Well, sometimes my contribution is the resistance to the work of God in my life.

Now, that sounds terrible, but that's the reality. I don't there are times where I exercise my free will, and my free will is in rebellion to God and to his commandments.

Steve, is your conscience clean?

You know what? I can answer that two ways, and I'll just stick with this one. The answer is, yes, my conscience is clean, but it's because I know the cleaner.

Oh!

Right?

In other words, it's not because I don't sin, and it's not because I don't confess my sin. It's because I know that in spite of all that I do and think and say, Jesus Christ has cleansed my every sin, including, you know, those sins of consciousness.

Yes, but Steve

Of conscience.

Do you sacrifice for others, though?

Yes, I do. Yes.

Now, do I sacrifice as much as I should? No, but I know someone who did.

Well, I know I'm just plucking this one out, and so, therefore, it's kind of out of context and not fair to the person who wrote it. But, you know, unbelievers, they sacrifice for others. How many people have laid down their lives in Korea or Afghanistan or other areas of combat, and they fall on grenades for others?

Policemen, firemen, you know, even civilians who just do things, you know, heroically to save somebody else's life.

Every Hindu mother, right? Every Muslim father, they do things for their children, and they sacrifice. I guess what I'd like to have done is maybe if we look at Romans 1 to 11 is tied to 12 to 16, and Ephesians 1 to 3 is tied to 4 to 6, and Colossians 1 to 3 .5 is tied to 3 .6 to the end of the book in chapter 4.

It seems like, John, it's harder for people because it's such a unique book. So, it's harder for them to say, how are these commands that are designed somehow to give assurance and not take it away, chapter 5 verse 13.

We don't kind of have the section up front with such a clear demarcation. Do you think that's part of the problem of 1st not of 1st John, but interpreting 1st John?

Well, I think one of the problems with interpreting 1st John is people want it to be I mean, they really should name it, rename it. Instead of 1st John, they should call it John's Beatdown of Believers.

Because the idea is to just leave you in the squalor of your guilt and just feeling like there is absolutely no hope for you. You need six weeks in the ER. I mean, it's like the ICU. I mean, it's just like, do you even have a pulse?

They're putting the paddles to you on a daily basis to check your heart out.

Rod Rosenblatt said, Christians take heart. Jesus died for the sins of Christians too.

What?

That's crazy. I mean, seriously, if we could rename every book in the Bible, that would be an interesting project, right? To just rename it. And there are some people, I mean, just to be humorous. And there are people, I think, who would really like to just call 1st John the Beatdown.

Because that's the way they present it. There's no hope for you if you're not living, I don't know what kind of life, but they would call it the victorious life. You know, the kind of the almost sin-free life.

You know, you still sin, but it's so rare. You know, I mean, come on. Seriously, think about it. When was the last time you actually sinned? I mean, that's kind of the way they preach it. And if it's more than that, if you can remember your last sin, you might not be a Christian.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

He was just kidding there.

Come on.

Faith, Obedience, and the Fruit of the Spirit

It seems to me, Steve, that when we talk about what's the primary fruit of the Christian, those that say obedience, godliness, holiness, saying no to sin, saying yes to righteousness. I think they're forgetting the first thing, and that's faith.

They're trusting in Jesus. They're believing in Jesus. And I don't want people to forget that. I also think if you're looking at 1 John and you read things like this out of context, you could be in trouble.

And by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is perfected.

And people read that and think, oh, kind of like this test thing. How much do I obey? I say I know him, but I've sinned, and I didn't speak to my wife properly, and I was harsh with my children, and I cut a corner at work, or whatever.

But they're not remembering John's writing this book. There are certain people, bad people, who are leaving the Christian faith. You can't lose your salvation, but 1 John 2, verse 19. They're never of us because they took off.

And one of the reasons why they took off is they said they didn't sin anymore, so they didn't have to confess things anymore.

Well, there are plenty of people like that, right? They don't need the church anymore. They don't need the gathering of saints. They are the lone ranger, so they don't need any of that stuff.

Steve, is this proper to interpretation or translation of 1 John 2? I write this, dear children. So far, so good?

Yeah.

All right. To guide you out of sin. But if anyone does sin, we have a priest friend in the presence of the Father, Jesus Christ, righteous Jesus. When he served as a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin problem for good, not only for ours, but the whole world's.

You know, there are parts of that I like. I don't mind that priest friend thing. That's okay.

Yeah, advocate is like a priest friend, except when the word is advocate, you kind of want the Greek word advocate. You want kind of advocate in there.

Yeah, but you know what I like? I like thinking about it. He's both our priest, our intercessor, and our friend.

But that's from other places. The Bible, we know he's a friend.

Right.

Law and Gospel, Sanctification, and Assurance

On NoCo today, here's what we're talking about. We're talking about, not even from 1 John only, but a bunch of tests. How do you know you're really a Christian? That's what we're talking about today. If you're listening, you probably are a Christian.

How do you know you're a Christian? And what we want to try to remind you of is that you're a Christian because of the work of Christ. And you simply, with a non-meritorious faith, and it's a non-meritorious instrument, it's called faith, you believe.

You have knowledge, assent, and trust. And you believe that to be true. And then what happens is you desire out of that to obey. But we don't want to have categories of blended categories, right?

No.

And we don't want to be on the treadmill of holiness. We don't want to be ascending the ladder to heaven. I wanted to say climbing the stairway to heaven.

I think everybody knew that.

But I just think all this stuff, you know, proceeds from the mindset of we never want anyone to have assurance of their faith. Because if they have assurance of their faith, then what happens? For sure, they're going to start sinning wantonly.

Okay, you've probably got, you've drilled down to maybe the psychological issue. And I don't mean weird psych stuff. I'm just saying, why is this being preached in such a way? Well, maybe people are ignorant of law gospel.

Maybe they're ignorant of duplex gratia. But I think what they're trying to do, Steve, and you hit the proverbial nail on the head, they don't want Christians to sin. Do we want Christians to sin, by the way?

No, we do not. So grace might abound?

No, we do not.

On antinomian, Cooley. We're not saying that at all. I mean, listen to Steve's sermons this summer. Listen to my sermons. No one I don't think in their right mind could ever say, based on that sermon, you're antinomian.

They might say based on a tweet or something. Oh, that sounds like it could be antinomian. We don't want people to sin either. But here's our question. And maybe, Steve, you want to wax on this for a while.

Does grace promote sin? Does grace incarnate promote sin?

No.

I mean, grace incarnate is the Lord Jesus Christ. The answer is no. But I think what happens in coming from the mindset of somebody who came from a cult where obedience was everything, right? You know, the goal was to stop sinning altogether so that I could become a God, right?

So, when I heard the gospel, when I believed the gospel, it was a scandal to me. The idea that Jesus Christ could love me in spite of who I was, right? And he knew everything about me and loved me anyway.

And I just couldn't get over that. That was amazing to me. So, you know, now when I hear the gospel, I'm like, it's still true. Like you preached on Sunday, right? God knows everything about me. And even so, not only does he love me now, but he always loved me, even knowing what I was going to do.

He chose me before eternity passed, and he didn't look down the quarters of time and go, I can't believe what that rascal is going to do. I'm going to unlove him.

Steve, how true is it in our lives when there are seasons? It seems like we're just very sensitive to the Spirit of God and we're saying no to sin. We're self-sacrificial. We're trying to say yes to righteous things and godly things and sacrifice for others and think of them in terms of love, what's best for them.

And then there are other seasons, not giving an excuse, but complicated by health problems, trials. Many Christians struggle under trials because they really kind of, why does God use trials? He uses trials to try to get rid of some of that dross that's in there.

And so, that dross is coming out when you're in the vice grip of cancer and other things. And I'm not saying that's a reason to sin. I'm just saying God, the Son, sympathizes with our weaknesses because he knows what it's like not to sin, but he knows the weakness of the human condition.

Oh, come on. Don't give us that whole Bible thing, talking about 1 Peter and then Hebrews. Come on. You know, even now, for a while, we encounter various trials, you know, this kind of thing. Come on.

He's not using it for our good.

Doesn't the fact that God puts us in trials purposely and providentially, knowing that Romans 5, Romans 8, 1 Peter, James 1, verses 3 and following, he knows we have dross, the dross of sin. He knows we're simultaneously just and sinful.

And so, he draws that out of us. How can we run around saying, no, no, no. We're always confessing. We're always doing these things.

It's almost as if, you know, getting back to this author's point, it's almost as if once you are saved, the process of sanctification is complete. It's done, right? Because you no longer sin. You no longer fail to confess.

You no longer fail in any way. You go from zero to hero, just like that.

When I was a kid, I thought if I didn't confess all my sins before I died, I wasn't going to go to heaven. I got my tonsils taken out when I was 21. They were bleeding in the night. I'm trying to think of all my sins.

It would be impossible to remember all the sins. But in a similar fashion, not one-to-one correspondence, but in a similar way, it's almost like this kind of purgatory thing where if I only do enough of these things, then God will accept me.

But he's already accepted me. We're all for works. But it's just as fruit. It's just evidence. There are consequent works that they call even conditional consequent works, but they're not conditions for salvation.

You're going to have works because the Spirit of God is in you.

Well, I mean, you just said it. When we read Galatians 5, what do we think? Fruit of the Spirit. Is that so that I can prove that I'm a Christian? Or is that so I can look and go, God is really at work in me.

Look at what he is doing.

You mean to tell me that says fruit of the Spirit? That the Spirit's work in you?

Yeah, I think so. Let me check that text.

Sounds like to me that's like the divine mystery of sanctification. It's the Spirit working in you.

Well, sounds to me like it's almost let go and let God.

So, dear Christian, we don't want you to sin. We want you to walk in a manner worthy of your calling. We talked about it today. If only couples in marriage could say, you know what? I need to forgive like I've been forgiven.

Is that a law?

Yes.

Yeah?

And then there's an indicative after. Because you've been forgiven in Christ Jesus, forgive. If only people would speak kindly to one another.

Is that a law?

Yes.

Be kind to one another. That's right there in Ephesians. But it's not detached from Ephesians 1, 2, and 3. And we're in Christ. We have the Spirit of God in us. We want you to live a holy life. But we want you not to look at your holy life and say that's your basis for your assurance.

Because only secondary do we want you to look at your life. Secondarily, not primarily.

It's because you are forgiven that you can live like you are forgiven.

Steve, you mean categories matter?

Yes, they do.