God Is Greater than Our Heart | 1 John 3:19-22

ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church

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So go ahead and turn with me to 1st John chapter 3 and we'll start in verse 18 1st

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John chapter 3 verse 18 God's Word says little children let us not love with word or with tongue, but indeed and truth and By this we will know

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That we are of the truth and will assure our heart before him in whatever our heart condemns us

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For God is greater than our heart and knows all things Beloved if our heart does not condemn us we have confidence before God and whatever we ask we receive from him

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Because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight and this is his commandment

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That we believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another Just as he gave a commandment to us and the one who keeps his commandments abides in him and he in him

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We know by this that he abides in us by the Spirit whom he gave us This is

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God's Word. Amen so This this last part of chapter 3 is a very

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Tightly knit and connected passage where the next verse that follows

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Continues the previous verse and adds to it. So this is kind of a challenge to split apart in separate sermons but there there is a method that that we can use to to break it down a little bit further and so I'm I will probably just cover verses 19 through 22 today as the bulletin says

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Regarding the primary subject matter of God being greater than our heart Now just a brief recap from verse 18 where we left off last time

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We obviously must Know always and understand that you cannot divorce love from the truth

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We cannot divorce love from truth because you cannot love apart from the truth, which

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I've preached on many occasions before and true love Obviously according to first Corinthians 13 rejoices with the truth which requires and is grounded by and is defined by So even love itself is defined by the truth of sound doctrine from Scripture and God's Word so that we can know how to love biblically and You cannot love a right without Doctrine, right?

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So this is something that I think we all have a pretty good understanding of already and our good fruit that we bear

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Include both our words and our doctrine that are rightly aligned with God's truth and word and sound doctrine

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In addition to our deeds our actions our works our behavior

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It's both end so we that's why verse 18 says we love not merely with words, but indeed and in truth in Doctrine in our understanding as well we love truly and righteously in word deed and truth therefore because We have already been regenerated by God's grace and by first receiving his gift of faith

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From him and by believing the truth of the gospel which transforms us into good trees that bear good fruit like Jesus said a bad tree cannot bear good fruit and A good tree cannot bear bad fruit.

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They are mutually exclusive so Also very important to understand you be we must know and Need the right source and the right cause in order for the right effect to follow

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Which is God God is the right cause he is the right source He is the only true source.

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That's why Jesus said I am the way the truth the life. Amen He is the source and the cause that we need to be saved and sanctified and so on so as we

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Turn back to or continue on to verse 19 We have a very important word that is being used there by the beloved

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Apostle And that is the word heart so as I've as As my custom my manner

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We always want to make sure that we understand what is meant by the words that are used in Scripture What does the word heart mean in?

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this passage So that's what is what we need to establish and define Right off the bat verse 19 says and by this we will know that we are of the truth and Will assure our heart

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Before him it give it will give us confidence before him Now turn with me to Proverbs chapter 23 verse 6 and we will see

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What God means when he says the word heart

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Proverbs chapter 23 and in God's providence.

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I actually preached on this last week as well. So we have It's some of this should be fresh still be a little fresh in our minds

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Proverbs chapter 23 verse 6 God's Word says Do not eat the bread of a selfish man and do not desire his delicacies for as he calculates in his soul as He thinks in his soul

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So he is So he is eating eat and drink.

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He says to you but his heart His heart is not with you so this is a very

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Important passage to understand what God means by this word heart and in our modern

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Culture this word heart tends to get thrown around a lot and it gets used a lot and it gets abused a lot in A way that is contrary to what scripture means by the word heart because modern

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Society and even in modern churches today tend to use the word heart primarily as emotions as emotion and That's not what the word heart means in scripture.

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That is not what it means. You can see here more carefully What it is pointing to?

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For as a man calculates or thinks in his soul his spirit his mind

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His nefesh is the Hebrew so he is But then eat and drink he says to you but his heart his lead or labob is not with you

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Right. So this is I which I've mentioned before a

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Hebrew parallelism It's a Hebrew parallel Parallelism where two different words are used to refer to the same thing or two different clauses or phrases

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It's a different way of saying the same thing So you have he calculates in his soul and then his heart is not with you

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Those are synonyms. They are synonymous. They mean the same thing. It means heart.

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It means mind It means spirit soul, they're all they're all synonymous in scripture, so What this also tells us is that we are what we think

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We are Fundamentally what we think right because it says right here as he calculates and thinks in his own soul

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So he is So he is the King James says as a man thinketh in his heart so is he so That there

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We have it. It's very clear that we are in a very

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Fundamental sense our minds our thoughts What we think?

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The inner man that is also what scripture uses to point to this the inner man the heart the true man

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The true man is the inner man who you really are on the inside on the inside Our heart that may or may not reflect the outer man if there are facades or layers covering what the heart really is

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Just like Jesus said right these people honor me with their mouth with their lips, but their heart their inner man is far from me

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Because they are hypocrites That is the problem that hypocrites have the inner man and the outer man do not line up.

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They don't correspond there is hypocrisy there and That brings us back to the issue of the contrast

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The true and false contrast that scripture points out It's not between the head and the heart

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Right because the head and the heart are one in the same according to scripture the heart is the mind

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The contrast rather in scripture are between the inner and outer man between the heart and the mouth

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What you profess like James 2 also teaches us Between the mouth what we say and our actions like first John Also teaches us as well as James chapter 2 and on Or the heart and our actions, right?

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Those are where the biblical contrasts lie that is very important not to be misled by a lot of the modern theology and cultural notions false notions of what the heart is

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We need to have the mind of Christ not of the world So I Really appreciate how the net

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Bible explains this Hebrew word labab or live from Deuteronomy 6 5

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Similar same word used here in Proverbs 23 It means heart obviously in OTA in Old Testament physiology

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The heart was considered the seat of the mind or intellect

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So that one could think with one's heart there you go Even the

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Greek word for heart cardia like cardiologist, right Used in Matthew 22 is

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Translated as mind in other passages. It's very clear scripture is

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Overwhelmingly clear what the heart means This is what it's pointing to the inner man the mind primarily

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Now, of course, are we merely the inner man? Are we just a mind or do we also have bodies as well?

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And obviously that goes without saying we also have bodies. We are a duality

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We're not three parts. We're not four parts or five parts. We are two parts. We are mind and body

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For just as faith without works. I'm sorry for just as the body without the spirit is dead

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So faith without works is also dead Amen, so We are two parts fundamentally but and And the body our bodies are a part of who we are but they are more like houses or tents or clothing for our soul our

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Spirit our hearts our mind which are all synonymous, right?

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The Baptist Catechism for young children In question 19

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Says have you a soul as well as a body? The answer is yes.

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I have a soul that can never die And to that I would add as well as a body that will be resurrected, right

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So we are both but fundamentally we are our parts our minds

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Because there will be a point for some of us who will depart and patent

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Pass away, but our spirits will be glorified in heaven apart from a body until the resurrection

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So 2nd Corinthians 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 1 also tells us

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For we know that if the earthly tent which is our home our house is torn down We have a building from God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens for indeed in this we groan

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Longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven in as much as we having put it on will not be found naked

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For indeed while we are in this tent We groan being burdened because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed

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So that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life eternal eternity eternal life and If you read on in that passage

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Paul continues to go on to talk about the body. It's referring to the body so This brings us back now to verse 19 again

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This is what Will assure our heart our mind and solidify our conviction

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It is doctrine. It is truth it is Intellectual because that is what our heart is a mind and so verse 19 once again says and by this

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We will know Again no knowledge that pertains to mind that we are of the truth and will assure

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Persuade our heart before him and give us confidence before him

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Now continuing on to verse 20 and whatever our heart condemns us for For God is greater than our heart and knows all things notice

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Knowledge again knows Mind Now I need to Lay out some some important caveats here some warnings because this these verses are difficult to translate and to interpret they are they are challenging they are not that straightforward and I'll Notice how in the legacy standard

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Bible that that we use It separates verse 20 with a semicolon which somewhat limits

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What exactly? Will quote assure us in our heart.

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Well, what will assure or persuade our heart? What exactly is it that assures or?

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Persuades us in our heart and There in verse 20. It says in whatever our heart condemns us.

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So it says By this we will know that we are of the truth and will assure our heart in whatever our heart condemns us

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And then it's separated by the semicolon for God is greater than our heart and knows all things

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So there's a separation there then we need to examine that carefully to see if it's if it's warranted or not

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Because there are different possible ways of translating and consequently interpreting these verses and depending on how you translate these words and Put them together.

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It dictates how you consequently Structure the sentence as a whole and what you get out of it.

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So We need to examine this carefully but one like like our confession says there are

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There are no There are no various types of meanings in Scripture At most you could really say there is a twofold sense in some scriptures that are prophetic

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Like Christ being the rock and the rock also being a literal rock So but but apart from that One interpretation typically makes the most sense, but we have to study it to see which one it is

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Especially especially when taking into account the analogies of Scripture and of faith

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Not just the immediate context in the verse but the larger biblical and doctrinal context as a systematic whole as a body of doctrine of knowledge that our mind our hearts receive as well as by rightly dividing

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Rightly distinguishing the word with the right tools like Scripture also tells us especially with the law and gospel distinction and applied application

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So with that said

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Let's tackle this passage then Now notice the beginning of verse 19 says and by this

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By this we will know well by what? What is he referring to?

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By what will we know that we are of the truth now? Sometimes when

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John uses this phrase he's referring to something that he's going to say later on but in this case

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It's the opposite. It's referring to what he said in verse 18 Okay By this we will know that we are of the truth

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He's referring to the precedent the antecedent which is verse 18, which says little children

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Let us not love merely with word or with tongue hypocritically in other words, but indeed in action good works and truth

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The Truth of sound doctrine along gospel Rightly distinguished and applied so on and so forth.

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That is That is how in part we will know that we are of the truth.

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Are you walking in the truth? That's obvious Do you walk in the truth or do you walk in darkness?

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That's what first John has been all about Do you love the truth? Do you believe the truth? Do you walk according to it?

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Do you exercise or live out the guilt grace gratitude paradigm that our reformed catechisms teach us?

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Do you acknowledge your guilt your sin guilt that you are guilty and condemned and deserve the wrath of God? That apart from his grace you are a wretched condemned sinner

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Do you? Receive the grace of God in the gospel that Christ died and lived perfectly and died

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Righteously as a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins Fully satisfying the sin debt and the wrath that we deserve on the cross where it was finished amen and in light of that do we then live out a lifestyle of Gratitude and sacrifice like Romans 12 tells us, right?

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We we should offer up our lives a living sacrifice Holy and acceptable and pleasing unto

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God. Amen That is the paradigm that we are called to live that scripture teaches us.

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So How but but this this verse here these verses

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There are some difficulties that we need to account for How can we still have assurance that we are truly saved and Belong to God if our heart condemns us

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What what about that? What about when our heart condemns us and why why would our heart condemn us?

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Because I you know many of us have wrestled with that Our heart our inner man condemning us for something that we thought said did whatever sin, whatever it may be

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And it's even in the present tense if our heart condemns us Now we're in the future.

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It's talking about a very real scenario that we as Christians face. It's not talking about Unbelievers here

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Primarily it's referring to believers So even Even you know, we have to be careful here now.

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I Gordon -clark's commentary I found to be helpful in explaining this

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Where he says by loving indeed and truth We shall know that we are of the truth because we walk in the light, right?

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And before him we shall persuade our heart that if it condemns us if It condemns us that God is greater than our heart

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That God is nevertheless greater than our heart So that is what truly assures us

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God is greater than our heart even if our heart condemns us or Deceives us or misleads us

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That is what I've seen. This is where unfortunately the legacy standard

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Bible disconnects the the last part of Verse 20 a little too much from what it is exactly that assures our heart

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It is not just you know, it's not well in whatever our heart condemns us. No, that doesn't make sense

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What assures our heart is that God is greater than our heart and knows all things

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Amen It's because of who he is that assures us

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Knowing God and who he is Not only that he is greater than us than our heart, which is us the inner man is the real you the real me

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God is greater than us Obviously, he is the creator we are creatures

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Even though we are his image But that he knows all things

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He knows everything is that not also reassuring to us

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God knows everything God is omniscient. This is one of the clearest passages in the

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Bible. That's Shows us that God knows all things he knows everything

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So trust the God who works in you and knows all things He does not learn

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God doesn't learn any anything Trust in him not yourself and not your heart.

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You're not in your emotions because Your heart can also be misled

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Now this also Radically opposes the heresy of what's called open theism because open theism teaches that God Doesn't know everything and he's still figuring things out.

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It's also called process theology it's a it's a rank heresy and you have people like I Forget his name, but there are some popular authors published in Christian bookstores that teach this false view that God and and the and this is actually what our minion is and leads to it leads to open theism because if we have free will and We can truly choose whatever we want

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Then God cannot know ahead of time what we choose because then our will wouldn't be free if God knew in advance

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Then our wills would be bound by God's knowledge So we this is why it's important to understand the

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Bible as a whole and Doctrinally systematically because there are consequences to what will what we believe so and God's knowledge.

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It's not just see this is what I was preaching a few weeks back God's knowledge is not some detached kind of knowledge like many try to say that well

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God saw in the future What you would believe or do he saw he's he looked through the corridors of time in the future

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And he saw this guy's gonna believe that girl's gonna believe she's gonna believe he's gonna believe no

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That does not that's not what God's knowledge is or foreknowledge God's foreknowledge predestines the future

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He dictates the future That's why he knows all things because God's knowledge determines the end from the beginning

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Amen That's what foreknowledge means he predestined everything and he knows all

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Things his decree that's his that's God's decree and his providence which executes his decrees in time so This is very important now

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This is the God of the Bible the omniscient God That is the one that we must trust

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Not ourselves not our works but him

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Turn with me to Proverbs chapter 3 in verse 5 the beloved verse that we should all have memorized by now

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It's a very important passage to it's a good life verse This verse really does sum up the entire scripture in a way

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Proverbs chapter 3 verse 5 says trust in Yahweh the

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Lord with all your heart all of it all your heart and Do not lean on your own

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Understanding your own understanding apart from Scripture his word in all your ways

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Acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight Do not be wise in your own eyes

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Fear Yahweh and turn away from evil Amen this is a summary of the entire

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Bible of what we are called to do as Creatures in light of our omniscient

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God We are to submit to him Our heart in all things and trust him with everything.

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I Clark's translation of this passage. I think it was much clearer of what the

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Apostle intended here He says in verse 19 and 20 He renders it by this we shall know that we are of the truth and before him we shall persuade our heart

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That if our heart condemns us That God is greater than our heart and knows everything

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That is what assures us and persuades us that God is greater than our heart and he knows everything

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Amen We shall still we shall quiet and tranquilize the fears and misgivings of our heart

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We shall assure our heart Even if it condemns us with the knowledge of who

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God is That God is greater than our heart and knows everything

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Amen a

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Few weeks ago Um My my son bought a crab

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His name is Jack the crab And it's a little it's a little red claw crab

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And it was really fascinating Because we were figuring out the environment that he best lives under So at first we filled up his little tank like half with halfway with water

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Because we kind of thought okay. Well crabs like water, right? They like to be in the water and it turned out that the crab didn't really like the water so much

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So we had to drain my son had to drain the water level much much lower and he started to add little rocks and you know shells and little branches and trees so that the the crab could could get out of the water and and Climb out and be outside of the water and And This this is a really funny illustration of What many of the attitude that many in the church have today?

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because You would think that oh well crabs like to be in the water and stuff. But this did they they really

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At least this one doesn't like to be in the water. It prefers to stay out of the water It's shallow

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The crab is shallow it likes to live on the shallow part not on the deep part and Many many of us have been in churches or maybe of us may have had this conviction of not really trying to dig too deep into the word and just Just you know

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Having a simple the simple life the simple prayer Quiet time and just you know, don't get caught up in all this doctrinal stuff.

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Just keep it simple and Be shallow in other words, that's really what what they're saying be shallow and This is this this attitude is heavily repeatedly and consistently rebuked in Scripture We are not called to be shallow

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We are not called to be shallow crabby patties, right we are called to be we are we are called to be deep divers deep divers

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Amen We all should have a desire to swim in the deep end of the ocean of God's truth

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Because God's Word is inexhaustible it's deeper than it is a two -edged sword which cuts deep to the heart and Everything that we need so That's very important to understand very important I Appreciate Clark's thoughts on this as well

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He says some readers may find all this complexity and analysis not so much lacking as useless and tedious

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Remember, however that we are dealing with God's Word and that sincere devotion

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Consists not in the super superficial reading of a chapter a day But in the very serious consideration of what

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God meant What did God say and what did he mean? What some people call devotion is simply a shirking of responsibility

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If you can't say amen, you ought to be out. You ought to say out, right? Some people

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Use this false piety to say well, I don't I don't you know, I'm just a simple Christian I don't dig into all this deep stuff.

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Well, you're being Negligent and that's a sinful attitude to have and God rebukes you for that attitude

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Remember what he told many times over Many people in Scripture you all should be teachers by now and yet you still have need of milk

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You should have a deeper understanding, but you're still in the shallow kiddie pool of the of the of the truth

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Not that should not be the case with any of us we need to know

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God's Word truly and deeply and This eat and when it comes to complex passages like this it requires deep intense

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Study sometimes to figure out what God actually meant and not just brush it over.

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It's well, you know, whatever I'm just simple and I just pray to God and you know, trust him with my blind faith faith is not blind

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That implicit faith is a false faith that Rome teaches Well, you don't need to understand you just need to do whatever the

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Pope says whatever the magisterium tells you and you'll be fine. No Truth understands and that is why in these verses he says repeatedly we will know

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The truth of who God is and that assures us in our heart so Amen Right now as we move on let's move on now here to verses 21 and 22 where God's Word continues and says beloved

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If our heart does not condemn us we have confidence before God assurance before God and whatever we ask we receive from him

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Because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight

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So I love how in this passage in this passage here

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We see that Even though John's letter deals with very weighty doctrinal matters that summarize massive portions of Scripture and Provides very big picture contrast of light and darkness and law and gospel and so on and some you know

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Even though there is a lot of that in there But the Apostle also sometimes assumes well so much so that he even assumes that the reader is already familiar with large portions of Scripture and its doctrines it's assumed

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But he also leaves very simple reminders of truths. We should already know

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He leaves for us very simple reminders of truths we should already know and That is what is stated here

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Beloved if our heart does not condemn us we have confidence before God. Well, that's obvious Right if our heart doesn't condemn us then yes, we can be assured before God Not with a false assurance of well

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I can sin as I please and do what I want and still be assured no, that's not what it's referring to and Whatever we ask we receive we receive from him

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But why it's not because we do whatever we want It's like what Proverbs 3 5 says right because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight

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It's all connected. It's a process God causes us to obey.

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He causes us to live after him and desire him and follow him Not perfectly not flawlessly not without sin

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We all still sin, but now God's ways are such that he convicts us and we repent and we mortify sin in our lives and put it to death and seek to Run away from it stay away from it abstain from even the appearances of evil, right?

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so And why is that Why is something so plain being stated here by the

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Apostle Because we sometimes need to be reminded of reality

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Because even though our hearts our inner man our minds are Regenerated already.

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They are renewed. God gives us a new heart. Remember he regenerates us We can nevertheless still be misled

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Deceived and tempted By the world the flesh and the devil which can lead us to distort reality and distort our reality in Christ it can cause us to lose hope and Hope deferred makes the heart what?

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sick depressed and it can cause us to fall into the dungeon of despair and That is a reality

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That we all can fall into if we are not careful this is something we need to be very careful of and This brings me to a very important public service announcement that I want us to meditate on and and leave with Even though our justification before God our

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Final standing before God is fixed is final unchangeable

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It is finished right it is finished. Amen what God accomplished on it in his perfect life and on the cross is

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Final and satisfied and full there is nothing left to pay for us to get right with God That state is finished and we receive that full satisfaction of our sin and Christ's righteousness by faith alone

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That is fixed That never changes we that's why we cannot lose our salvation.

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You cannot lose what is unchangeable What's finished if it's truly finished then it cannot be unfinished right so that is set in stone and in blood the blood of God Amen like that like that beautiful hymn goes, how can it be that thou my

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God should die for me now? However Our assurance is not fixed

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Our assurance is not Unchanging it's not final our assurance can go up or down Because of How we live or how we affect ourselves or how we allow things to affect us

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So our assurance is a different story. Okay. I Love how our confession the second

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London Baptist 1689 confession in chapter 18 section 4 explains this very beautifully summarizes

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Scripture regarding this very important thing for us to understand of the assurance of grace and salvation

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It says in various ways true believers May have their assurance of salvation shaken diminished or interrupted

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Why? Well, this may be because of their negligence through negligence in preserving of it or by falling into some particular sin which wounds the conscience and grieves the spirit or to put it in John's words condemns our

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Our heart condemns us causes our heart to condemn us right or by some sudden or forceful temptation or Or By God withdrawing the light of his countenance and causing even those who fear him to walk in darkness and to have no light

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For a time like with Joe, right? Many different there's many different ways.

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This can happen or a combination of these things Yet Yet Believers are never

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Destitute utterly void of the seat of God and the life of faith the love of Christ and the brethren sincerity of heart and conscience of duty and Out of these things this assurance may in due time be revived

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Be revived restored renewed by what? by the operation of the

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Spirit by the operation of the Spirit and In the meantime, they are preserved.

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So not only is our assurance revived, but we are also preserved and prevented from utter despair from total despair and hopelessness

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And God's people said amen Amen That is a beautiful summary of what scripture teaches us and these verses also teach us and remind us of Who God is once again that God is not only omniscient, but he is also omnipotent

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Right because whatever we ask we receive We receive from God why because God is omnipotent he gives us what we need and we ask and We receive from our

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Almighty Omnipotent Father because God is God God is

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God We are creatures wholly entirely dependent upon God For his provision and that is why

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Jesus said unless you become like little children It's it's not you cannot be right because Little children are utterly dependent on their parents

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For their provision without their parents they will perish That's the picture that is painted of us

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Sheep is the same thing sheep are very They're very They're very delicate sensitive easily misled creatures

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They need a shepherd to guide them to flock them to care for them to love them

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That is who we are That is our reality Utterly dependent upon God, but he is loving and abundantly gracious to give you us

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Not only everything we need But now to him who is able to do far more abundantly

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Beyond all that we ask or even understand According to the power that works within us

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To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever and God's people said

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Amen Ephesians 3 20 to 21. It's a beautiful life verse there as well for to meditate on That is our condition.

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We are utterly helpless Apart from God, but God is utterly Omnipotent and powerful to provide and care for us

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Amen beloved. So with that, let us go ahead and bow our heads and close out with prayer our gracious precious

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Lord and Heavenly Father We thank you so much for your triune omnipotent omniscient attributes

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Lord that which gives us assurance it which assures our heart even if it condemns us

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Lord, even if it misleads or misguide us Miss misguides us that you

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God are greater far greater than our heart and You know all things and you know us truly and you know who belong to you

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Lord and you give us that assurance father by your means of grace and by your spirit and even though we may

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Neglect to preserve our assurance and fail and sin and And fall short every day

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Yet your grace is sufficient and greater than all our sin and you sustain us and you help us and empower us and equip us

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To grow and live for godliness and righteousness and die more and more into sin

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Lord we thank you for your precious word and truth which sanctifies us and Preserves us and keeps us

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Lord We thank you father for being our almighty heavenly shepherd

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That leads us into the green pastures and that Keeps us from death

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Through your son who gives us and grants us eternal life father God. We thank you for the good shepherd that you are

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For being the heavenly father that you are that you give us good things Lord As we will continue to see in your word in the coming weeks as well father.

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We thank you so much We ask that you would provide for us Lord that you would give us our daily bread

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Not just our physical Needs but also our spiritual needs father that you would provide for us with everything that we need and even beyond everything that we

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Ask or understand father help us to live that reality and live in light of that reality in that Confidence and that boldness and that assurance

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Not only of ourself of our salvation, but of your providence your provision your

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Omnipotent provision Lord your omniscient provision and your graciousness that has

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Given us everything when we were utterly helpless to do anything for ourselves

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Apart from your grace and mercy. We thank you father God and we ask these things in Jesus precious almighty all -powerful

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Omnipotent and omniscient name. Amen Thank you for listening to the sermons of thorn crown covenant

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Baptist Church where the Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety Has applied to all of faith and life.

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We strive to be biblical reformed historic confessional loving discerning

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Christians who evangelize Stand firm in and earnestly contend for the Christian faith

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If you're looking for a church in the El Paso, Texas area or for more information about our church Sermons and ministries such as Semper Ephraim on the radio and thorn crown

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Network podcast Please contact us at thorn crown ministries calm and may the mercy peace and love of our triune