Whose Voice Are You Listening To? | Theocast

As human beings, we listen to a lot of voices. And that's true in our day-to-day experience, whether we're aware of it or not. And so a healthy way to reflect on yourself and a healthy way to do some introspection is to ask yourself this question, whose voice am I listening to?

Am I listening to the voice of the evil one, the voice of Satan that accuses and lies to me about God and about everything? Am I listening to the voice of my flesh? Am I listening to the voice of the world?

Or am I listening to the voice of my savior who speaks an entirely different word to me? The voice that you're listening to is gonna affect your day-over-day experience greatly. It's gonna affect how you experience life and the ways that you look at life and the story that's in your mind.

And so we hope that this conversation today will reframe some of that and we can recalibrate our ears to listen to the voice of Jesus.

Stay tuned.

If you're new to Theocast, you may not have heard of this word. It's called pietism. You ever felt like the Christian life is a heavy burden versus rest and joy, that you wake up worrying about how well you're gonna perform instead of thinking about what Christ has done for you?

It's dread versus joy, really. That's pietism. Pietism causes Christians to look in on themselves and find their hope, not in what Christ has done, but what they're doing. And we have a little book for you.

It's free.

We want you to download it. And we're gonna explain the difference between pietism and what we call confessionalism. Reform theology, really. How it is that we walk by faith, seeing the joy of Christ, and when Jesus says, come to me and I will give you rest, what does that look like?

You can download it on our website. Just go to theocast .org. Welcome to Theocast. Encouraging worried pilgrims to rest in Christ. Conversations about the Christian life from a reformed perspective. If you're tuning in, this is the first episode you've ever heard and you're wondering, what are these guys about?

Really, we just wanna pull the clutter off the gospel. There's so much confusion out there and help you find legitimate rest in Christ. And then, what do you do with your life?

What's the purpose?

We're gonna reclaim the purpose of the kingdom. Purpose of your life in God's kingdom. That's the point of our podcast today. Your hosts are Justin Perdue, pastor of Covenant Baptist Church in Asheville, North Carolina.

And I'm John Moffitt, I'm the pastor of Grace Reformed Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee. And Justin, this is the second of our first episodes in the beginning of the year. So this is the first time we're together, just a few days after the turn of the year.

First time we're together virtually.

Yeah, we were gonna try and get together and spend some time recording and working on Theocast, and that's not gonna work out, but hopefully, Lord willing, soon we will do that. So, we had some plans to go to a new location this time.

We were gonna go to, where were we gonna go? North Carolina, right?

Greenville, South Carolina.

Greenville, South Carolina, sorry, yeah. And real quick, I need to take a pause in my intro. My wife is amazing, for those of you that don't know this. She went by the coffee shop and gave me a coffee.

They won't see you, go on over.

You can tell Judith I said hello.

And Justin says hello, Judith. She can see you, but they can't see you, bye.

Yeah.

That's right, we're a professional podcast. You can close that door behind you. We're a professional podcast around here, and we like to give free advertisement. For those of you who are in Spring Hill, this is White Shepherd Coffee, amazing.

Well, maybe White Shepherd could give us.

A little seed gift or something, we'll see.

A little seed gift. And you know what? I could probably get them to donate a bag of coffee to me. Doesn't help you out, so.

All right, John, I feel welcomed, I feel encouraged.

Keep going.

Yeah, we need to move on, we need to move on. All right, anyways, a couple of announcements. This will probably be coming out in the first week of February, and we are probably on the heels, if not just announced, Justin's new book.

I am beyond excited about this book. It is called More Than Forgiven. And that title is a great example of what's inside that book. There's so much more to your adoption than just you having your sins cleansed.

There's so much joy and hope that comes in the gospel, and that's what that book is about. I encourage you, if it's not out yet, you can go to our website, sign up for our email, or go to our social media and follow us there.

We're gonna announce it. It'll be available on our website and Amazon. Pretty excited about that. Lastly, Justin and I are gonna be doing a conference with Chad Bird and Ken Jones on the law and the gospel, and you can sign up for that.

There's still a few tickets left, I think. At this point, it's so hard for us to know. It's a month away. There might be a few tickets left. You go to theocast .org. That conference is gonna be on April the 10th through the 12th in Asheville, North Carolina.

All right, Justin, that is all the announcements.

Yeah, we're talking to Chad and Ken today.

Yeah, excited about that. Right after this conversation, as a matter of fact, so we better get this thing going.

So true, man. I guess it's up to me to get this going.

Yeah, well, Justin, these people are listening to us, because I think they are either curious or want to be influenced positively. But, Justin, it's easy without us being aware of it to slip in to negative influences.

Talk to us about that today.

John, you're crushing it with your segues this year,.

I'll tell you.

It's my New Year's resolution.

I mean, guys, if this is a foreshadowing of what awaits in 2025, look out. It's gonna be the year of prosperity and jubilee around here at Theocast.

Yeah, there's the logo right there.

The way John's teeing us up.

I know.

All right.

I'm doing great. Let's do this.

The Voices That Shape Our Lives

Title of the episode, Whose Voice Are You Listening To? This was, as we always say this, if you're new to us, this would be more for you. If you're an old listener, you just, you appreciate us and you put up with us.

So John and I are both pastors, and so we're preaching in our own local churches Sunday over Sunday. And often, material for this podcast comes out of things that we're reflecting on, thinking on, applying, whatever, in the pulpit.

And so I'm in John's gospel. This past Sunday, preached John 7, 14 through 8, 11. And that includes a number of different things, but it's at the Feast of Booze is going on. And at the last day of the feast, Jesus stands up in the midst of the whole thing and cries out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

There's a lot going on there, biblically, redemptive historically, that we don't need to talk about right now. But the point being, he is holding himself out as the fulfillment of everything that this feast is about.

And about, he's the yes and amen to all the promises of God. And he invites sinners to come to him.

This is posture.

He always does this. He bids sinners to come, come to me. If you're weary, heavy laden, I'll give you rest. If you're thirsty, come to me. Whoever comes to me, I'll never cast you out. That's Jesus. Then there is the well-known account of the woman caught in adultery.

And now is not the time to go into the fact that I think that account should be in the Bible. We can talk about that another time. Yeah, this is not the podcast for that. But I preached it.

That would be a good debate,.

Because I don't think it should be. So we can have a whole debate on this.

Well, you know, Augustine, Calvin, and many others thought it should be. And so I'm good with that. And John, you and I could debate it.

It's great.

Anyhow, at the end of that account, there is the scene, we're familiar with it, right? Like this, in an attempt to trap Jesus, the Pharisees and the scribes, they bring in a woman in the midst, in the temple.

There's a big crowd looking on. They bring a woman who's been caught in adultery. They put her before Jesus. And they're trying to get him to say something that would violate the law of Moses. Jesus, this man, or this woman, excuse me, was caught in the act of adultery.

In the law, Moses told us to stone such women. What do you say? And of course, we know how Jesus bends down and he's drawn with his finger in the dirt. And I envision it to be silence, that is on the one hand marvelous and Jesus is awesome.

And then on the other hand, this kind of harrowing,.

What's he gonna say?

Stands up and he says, let the one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her. Then they all leave from the oldest to the youngest. And then the woman is left there. Still, the crowd is looking on and it's her and Jesus in the midst.

And how is he gonna engage her? And he says, woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? And she says, no one, Lord. And he says, well, neither do I condemn you. Go now and sin no more. So not only does Jesus bid sinners to come to him, this woman in the midst of a horrific situation, public shame, fear, all of it, his word to her is you're not condemned.

And now in light of the fact that your condemnation has been removed, in light of the fact that you have God's favor and you're forgiven, go and sin no more. So are we listening to the voice of the evil one?

We'll talk about that, his voice, the things that he says to us. Are we listening to the voice of our flesh? We'll think about that and the things that come from within. Are we listening to the voice of the world?

Or are we listening to the voice of our Savior? That's today's conversation. And there are all kinds of ways that this can be applied. And so we're gonna maybe go here, there, and everywhere with it. And we hope some of this encourages you.

Satan's Accusations, Lies, and Temptations

Yeah, this is a great conversation, Justin, because this is a great habit. You know, when you talk about self-reflection and introspection, this is one of these areas that I will applaud.

This is a wonderful way to be self-reflecting and to be introspective.

Agree.

Yeah, beginning of the year. This is healthy. Yeah, because what you're talking about is source of influence, really.

Of course.

That's what you're talking about. And it's good and healthy to say, where am I getting this feeling? Where am I getting this idea? Where has this come from? What's the source of this? And so much in pietism, self-reflection is more of, am I doing enough?

Of course.

Is God happy with me? And we wanna say, where did that come from? What influenced you on that one?

We're gonna talk about it, yeah.

That's right, that's right. So when it comes to self-examination and self-reflection, we're gonna go ahead and on the outside say, that's the whole point of this episode. We want you to re-examine what's influencing you.

So it's a good intro, man. Lead us on.

Really good, man. I mean, so let's start out with this. I wanna start with the voice of the evil one. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna talk about the various voices. Really, it is the world, the flesh, and the devil, but we're gonna reverse that order.

So we'll talk about Yeah, I mean, we're gonna go Satan, flesh, world. Like, how is it that we listen to these voices and what might that look like for us? And then we're gonna pivot to, all right, what about the voice of Jesus and what does he say to us?

And much better way to live. Not only in terms of the influence on us, but you were talking about various ways that we're influenced and affected. And a lot of times, too, it's my lived experience. It's kind of the thing that's underneath.

It's like in the background of my life. What is that? What's in the background of my life? What is the story, so to speak, the narrative that's in my mind and heart? Where's that coming from? You know, that's a real good question to ask.

And this is, like we said, healthy reflection and introspection. All right, so am I listening to the voice of Satan? Let's begin here. He is referred to as the great accuser of the brethren. So am I listening to the voice of the enemy as he accuses me?

Think about, like, I would say that those chief, the scribes and the Pharisees in that account of the woman caught in adultery, their conduct is diabolical. They are acting like Satan. I mean, it is straight up Zechariah 3, right, where Joshua the high priest is standing before the Lord and Satan's there.

What's Satan doing? He's accusing Joshua. He is pointing out his dirtiness and his unworthiness. Well, the angel of the Lord, i .e. the second person of the Trinity, God the Son, is standing there and basically says, Joshua, it's okay, because I'm gonna take your dirty clothes from you and I'm gonna give you my robes to wear, right?

So, and that's, we'll get to the voice of the Savior in a minute, but are we listening to the accusations of Satan that continue to tell us and continue to bring to mind all of the ways that we're unworthy of God, all of the ways that we have failed God, all of the ways that we have sinned yet again?

You have sinned, you've done it again. Like, yeah, God, maybe he's been merciful to you in the past, but not now. You have done this too many times. Your repentance isn't genuine. Yeah, there's mercy with God, but not for you.

Right, these are the accusations that Satan continues to hurl at us, or he's also called, Jesus says, John 8, he was a liar from the beginning and he's the father of lies. Are we listening to his lies about God even?

How he says to, like, what did he do in the garden? You can't really trust him. He's not good to you. Like, he's holding out on you. Like, he's not who you think he is. He's not who he's told you he is.

So Satan does that over and over again. Or the lies that he tells me about how God feels about me. He's frustrated with you. His patience, he doesn't have any more for you. He is so indignant toward you and so angry, he's just gonna pour his wrath out on you.

That's what Satan tells us. It lies about God. Or he says, hey, yeah, you got God's favor. You're good with God right now, but if you wanna remain good with him, you wanna remain in his good graces, you better get to work.

You better do your part. Because if you don't keep doing this, or if you stumble back into that, don't you think, for one second, don't you presume on God's kindness? Don't you think that he's gonna continue to show you his favor if you don't get it together?

These are the lies of Satan. Or lastly, and then I'm gonna turn it over to you, John, talk about Satan a little bit. His temptations. God tempts no one, but Satan does. He's tempted Jesus, he tempted Adam and Eve.

Do we think he doesn't tempt us? He does. Well, what about his temptations perpetually for us to leave God and go our own way? All the ways that he tempts us to just kinda do what we want, do what feels good.

We're gonna get to the flesh in just a minute. But yeah, he works this way. And Satan is the great adversary, the great enemy. He is real. Yeah, he's a servant of God, yet he is powerful. He's the God of this world.

And are we listening to his voice or not? Or is he in your head in terms of the voice, the narratives, the words you're listening to?

Justin, if I were to say to you, I think we need to exterminate anybody that doesn't hold up to a genetic perfect human being. And then I define for you whatever that is, whatever race I'm gonna choose.

And that is how we should act. Immediately, you're gonna go, you're gonna ask me a question. Where did you get that? Yeah, what in the world, man? Because you can tell that something is influencing, because that's not true.

That's not reality. So something influenced me. And when you talk sometimes, Justin, we have so etherized Satan, and we have so created him to be a cartoon character in the Christian faith, that when his lies come into our existence, we don't recognize them because they're not foreign to us.

When Jesus says that he is the father of all lies, that means when you are hearing these accusations in your heart that you were just defining, because you're like, yeah, John, but you guys gotta be careful because Satan isn't really putting those thoughts in our minds.

Listen, if they are in residence in your mind, he absolutely put them there because he gave the mechanism to get them there, and they live there, and they're from him. Therefore, he put them in there.

Yeah, I don't, that's another conversation for another day. Obviously, I would anyway. Do I think that Christians can be possessed by Satan? Of course not, because we belong to Christ. But do I think that, I don't know how else to understand accusations and fiery darts in the language of the scriptures, in the temptation, and the things that Satan actually does that clearly have an effect on us.

I don't know how to understand that apart from those things being real. Now, can I explain the mechanism of all of it? No, but the scripture seems to me unapologetically clear that Satan does these things and that we are vulnerable in one sense, right?

Therefore, we put on the armor of God,.

I .e. Christ wants to continue.

I think Satan uses means.

Sure.

He's not omnipotent, he's not omniscient, but he's powerful.

No, exactly. So, is Satan attacking me and you at the same time? No and yes. No, and that he's only in one place unless you and I are standing next to each other. And yes, by sense of means. Like, he's been using false teachers for thousands of years.

Sure.

And literally, his fallen angels

We're gonna talk about the ways of the world.

And all that, yeah.

Yeah, Paul says his fallen angels appear as angels of light.

Sure.

But my point of it being is that sometimes, Justin, lies linger longer. Ooh, look at that. Lies linger longer because we don't identify where they're from.

It's a bigger Baptist preacher right there.

With all that alliteration.

It reminded me of the alliteration at the end I used on Sunday. It's very Baptist. But they, because if we can be appalled by its source, right, for instance, the reason I was using, that's an Adolf Hitler idea.

Right.

Like, you exterminated millions of people. So, if you hear me, you should immediately say, John, don't talk like that. Don't give me that information. The source of that is evil. We should be able to identify when we start questioning the goodness of God and his love and affection towards us, we should go, whoa, the source of that is evil.

That is not appropriate thought. Like, that is not how God wants me to think about him or my relationship with him. But the problem is is because we don't know where the source is from and we don't identify it, at times it lingers and it stays and it actually influences our hearts.

And honestly, Justin, really the only way of knowing a lie is to know the truth, right? This is why Jesus says the truth.

If you know the truth, you can recognize the counterfeit.

That's right, it'll set you free. But I think this is so healthy to sit back and, because Justin, you and I, sometimes even when I have my thoughts that wander and I can have thoughts of lust or envy or fear and anxiety, it is healthy and good to go, that is not of God.

That is not of God. That is not what my father taught me.

This is not exactly.

This is what Paul means when he says, this is not how you learned the gospel. That's what he means. He's like, that doesn't come from God. That's the opposer, that's the accuser, that's the anti-God, that's the antichrist.

So it's healthy at times to identify these lies and realize that's what they are because the Bible is very clear in our identity, which is so great about your book. I'm excited about it. And this is not a podcast about your book, which we will do.

But no, I think having a healthy, a very healthy understanding of Satan's constant influence in that, yeah, he personally isn't in our presence and we're not throwing inkwells at him like maybe Luther was.

I mean, I'm like, I'm totally all cool with Satan coming after Luther because the guy had a lot of influence. But me, he doesn't know who I am. But he throws his minions at me and his ideologies at me for sure.

There's the principalities and powers of darkness. I mean, it's a whole kingdom of darkness. So there's a lot in terms of spiritual warfare that we tend to fall out. This is another podcast for another day.

We tend to fall off one side of the horse or the other when it comes to Satan and spiritual warfare. We either give it, it's all we think about or we just act as though it's not real and neither is healthy, right?

So we talk about

Right, and I just wanna go on saying that I think we as Christians need to talk more about the opposing views of the gospel in our hearts and minds is demonic. And we need to remember that.

Yeah, for sure, for sure.

Hey guys, real quick. Some of you are listening to this and it's encouraging to you, but you have questions. So where do you go? How do you interact with other people who have the same questions and share resources?

We have started something called the Theocast Community. We're excited because not only is it a place for you to connect with other like-minded believers, all of our resources there, past podcasts, education materials, articles, all of it's there and you can share it and ask questions.

You can go check it out. The link is in the description below.

All right, let's continue on though. Like you talked about, Satan is, I mean, we referred last week to Satan's tyranny and all of those kinds of things. Well, Satan is referred to by Paul as the God of this world.

And so we're gonna get into, you talked about Satan using means and even his temptations. Those are basically things that he throws in our path that our corrupt flesh is attracted to. So let's talk about the flesh some and the ways that the voice of the flesh speaks to us.

And so we are sinners and saints, right? We're saints and sinners at the same time as we've been united to the Lord Jesus. We've been given a new nature and a new heart that loves God, that trusts Christ.

It's been united to Jesus. And at the same time, we drag the corpse of the old man around with us. We know that. And the old man floats, as Luther said. And so given that that's true, there are all kinds of things that wage war.

You know, our flesh wages war against our spirit, against our inner man. And so are we listening to the voice of our flesh? So this could be any number of things. This could be the cravings and the passions and the desires that we have.

You know, where it's like, oh my gosh, like this thought has popped into my mind, but I'm not even sure where this came from. And now I can't get rid of it. Or this desire that I have, that I know, like you just said, I know it's wrong.

I know that this is not good. I know that this is not of God. I know that this is not what my father would have for me. I know that Jesus died for this. And on the one hand, if he's here, it's like, you know, this is really bad and you shouldn't go here.

And I love you and I'm for you, you know? So I know all this, but yet I can't shake it. Are we listening to those things? And are we trying to then construct a narrative and a view of things to justify or condone what I want to do?

Am I listening to my flesh in that way? But also there are other ways that the flesh speaks. So the doubts and the fears that we have, where do those come from? Well, they don't come from the inner man.

They come from the frailty of the flesh that I doubt God or that I'm afraid. Like it is an old man, legal forensic reality that views God as judge that causes me to dread him, right? So am I listening to my flesh in that way?

There are also many people out there that listen to this podcast. You may really battle thoughts of like self-loathing. You might hate yourself. Now it's good to despair of our own righteousness and to acknowledge the corruption that lies within and that I am in complete need of Christ.

But then if you fall off the other side of the horse to where it's just like, I'm just all bad all the time. I'm worthless. I'm terrible. Like, I don't know why anyone would love me, including God. That's not of the Lord.

That's not from your inner man.

That's from the flesh, right?

It's destructive.

Am I listening to the flesh in this way? Or last one, think we were made and the covenant of works is real. We've talked about this in the past where do this and live. Obey and you'll have eternal life, right?

Are you listening to your flesh in all the ways that we clearly and innately think that we need to earn God's love? Like I need to do it. I need to achieve it. Just pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

Make something of yourself. Are you listening to your flesh in that regard? Because that is not how it works in God's economy. He gives us life. He gives us salvation. We receive it as a gift from his hand.

We don't earn it. But am I listening to that voice from within that's like, man, I gotta do my part. I gotta contribute. Just some of the ways that the flesh speaks. Are we listening to that?

Man, Justin, this is like a constant, right? And I think the only way to, you know, we said this offhanded, but I'm gonna go here now. I think the only way to go, the only way to get through this kind of things is you have to have a light that leads you through.

Because you're talking about the darkness of Satan and the darkness of your flesh. They're both murky and ugly. So we have to have something that pulls us like towards the light. And that becomes Christ, right?

So this is going back to even, I mean, there's so many passages. But again, I'm just thinking of 2 Peter where he talks about the promises of the fulfillment of the prophecies of Christ become the light in a dark place.

And there is a, and what's so, I got so many things I wanna say and we're like running out of time here soon. But Justin, when we're looking at our life and examining our thought processes, at times when you're in that moment, it's so hard and it's so real, you don't know how to pull yourself out of it.

This is why God knew in our weakness. First of all, He knew the attacks of the kingdom of darkness and their powers and the power of our flesh. So much so that when He wrote about the solutions, He didn't write them to individuals for individual use.

He wrote them to the church for corporate use because there's gonna be times I need you to remind me of the gospel. I need you to tell me to stop believing a lie. I need you to lead me in my weakness towards the one who can provide for me strength and help because my thoughts are so, I'm so consumed by them.

And Justin, I know for a fact, because we've done this for so many years, we've had so many comments and emails that have come into us where people are crippled by this stuff, man. Crippled, I mean like can't get out of bed at times because of this.

And we wanna sit here and not condemn you, get angry at you, call you anything other than a dear precious brother and sister and say, you're not crazy, okay? You're not the first one who's had to examine the source of your thought.

And we're here to encourage you and say, hey, listen, you need to abandon that stuff because it is toxic. And you need to go to the sure foundation of the gospel, which reminds you of your weakness as a sinner and that all of your righteousness and all of your hope is put on to you by Christ, by faith alone.

That is the truth. That is the proper source. That is freedom. And man, it's so hard. And Justin, there are gonna be at times, and I know you agree with this, we don't know if it's our flesh or Satan or a combination of both.

And it's hard to know. And I don't think, and in my opinion, I don't think you need to identify it, guys. Don't try to figure out like,.

It's just Satan or my, who cares?

Who cares where it's from? It's wrong. Like, how did I get sick? I don't care how I got sick. If it was the plane or the grocery store, I just wanna get better.

Yeah, I mean, it's Satan, it's the flesh. I mean, just a brief tip of the cap to the world here. I mean, there's

Well, I have some thoughts on that too.

There's, yeah, but then it's all, all right, it's, yeah, anyway. So like the course of the world, to use Ephesians two language, the world hates God. And so the world hates Christians. I mean, this language is shot through the scriptures.

Jesus is playing about it. The apostles are too. And the world under the domain of the reign of Satan is in rebellion against God. And we suppress the truth and unrighteousness naturally. All of that is the case.

And so to follow the course of the world, again, Ephesians two language, is just to be carried along by the way that the world thinks and the way that the world acts and the things that the world values and the things that the world sees as normal.

And there's all kinds of ways this can happen for us where we live in a culture, we live in a society, we grow up and we experience things. And we do view certain ideals or certain kinds of circumstances or a certain standard of living or a certain lifestyle or whatever it is.

We view these things as quote unquote normal. And so they don't resonate. They don't register with us as like, yeah, this might not be good. And maybe the way of the world here is off. We don't always see it that way.

And so there's a lot of ways that the world speaks to us through the media we consume, relationships that we have, all kinds of things. And the Lord does not mean for us to be taken out of the world. He's very clear about that.

But that we would be protected from the evil one. But it's also clear that we ought not follow the course of the world either. So what are the ways that we listen to the world in a way that is clearly contrary to what the Lord would have for us?

It's a good thing to reflect on.

Yeah, your point on Ephesians, man, you just have to read this because I can remember thinking about this a couple of years ago and it was like, man, I don't think we really pay attention to this. So just listen to how Paul says this.

He says, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins. And once you once walked, okay, so walking means that like you're governing your life.