Prodigal, God Still Has You | Theocast

Hi, this is John, and today on Theocast, Justin and I talk about prodigals. Those who've walked away from God, and the question is, can they walk away so far that there is no grace or mercy remaining?

And are prodigals normal? We look at passages in the Bible that warn us about the devil and how the devil tries to trip us up and how we can often struggle against our own flesh and at times lose that battle.

What does it look like for a prodigal to come back into the good graces of God?

It's a lively discussion. We hope you enjoy it. A simple and easy way for you to help support Theocast each month is by shopping at Amazon through the

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

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

Conversations about the Christian life from a Reformed and pastoral perspective. You keep throwing that in there lately,

John. I know. I just want people to understand we're pastors and that's how we look at things. It's true enough. There you go.

Your host today, Justin Perdue, pastor of Covenant Baptist Church in Asheville, North Carolina. And I'm John Moffitt, pastor of Grace Reformed Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee.

Yeah, sure enough. And today's giveaway, Justin, we're going to, we got something for the peoples.

So we like to give the people things. Today we are giving away one of our very own primers.

I'm holding it up right now. For those who are watching on the YouTubes, it is our primer, Safe in Christ, a primer on assurance right here.

Written by John, Jimmy, and myself. This is just a brief little treatment from us on assurance and how we really are, as the title would indicate, safe in the

Lord Jesus Christ because of what He has done for us. It has nothing to do with what we are doing for Him.

And that's the best news in the world. So we are giving this copy away today. As always, our generosity,

I suppose, combined with the sovereignty of God and of course the Wheel of Names. It's now infamous.

And the Wheel of Names has chosen today our brother, one of our members,

Seth Moser. So Seth, you will receive a free copy of Safe in Christ, a primer on assurance.

If you don't get a message from us, man, shoot us one and we will make sure to get that copy to you. We will be giving away one additional copy of the primer on assurance via social media tomorrow.

So you're hearing this podcast as it releases on a Wednesday. Tomorrow is Thursday. We will be giving away another copy.

So what you need to do today as you're hearing this podcast is go to one of our social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, and there will be instructions there as to how to enter yourself into this second giveaway.

So somebody else will be getting this resource tomorrow. So avail yourselves of that. We hope it's encouraging.

Yeah, as a quick announcement, as the ministry grows, we get the resources to produce these and it takes quite a bit of money to get them up and running.

And we try and price them at a point where, let's put it this way, we ain't going to Hawaii anytime soon,

Justin, but they are super helpful. And we've got more on the way.

Things like what is reformed theology, law, gospel distinction, what is the purpose of the church, all of that good stuff.

So stay tuned for those. And as the resources are there, we hope to brand these things and bundle them together and hope they're good resources for people.

So that's right. There that is. What are we talking about today, John? Yeah, man. It's a serious, heavy, but good conversation.

Yeah, it is. It is a heavy conversation. We at Theocast have created a monster and that monster is we poke the bear of Pietism in the eye and out of that bear comes all kinds of spewing questions.

That's a wonderful image, John. Man, you're quite the wordsmith, dude. Spewing out of the eye, here it comes.

People struggle and they struggle mightily and we hear about it in our own churches.

Justin and I were just commenting how we are trying to fit in all of our scheduling with people who are needing encouragement and strength and counsel as it relates to suffering and sin and all that.

And we also hear about it from Theocast on the Facebook group and our email chat. There's just, it's everywhere.

There's stuff all over the Semper Reformanda Facebook group too. Instagram. We got a long dialogue from someone recently.

They just cannot see the struggle with their sin and assurance lining up.

It's really hard and I personally understand and so does Justin that sin does rob us of two things, the clarity of Christ in the gospel and our assurance in Christ.

So today's conversation is really geared towards the biblical understanding of struggling with sin at what level.

We did a podcast a while back that said how much can a Christian sin and for how long.

And I would encourage you if you have not heard that list, that episode, you can go listen to that. We'll put it in the show notes. This is kind of 2 .0.

We wanted to add to those thoughts and really provide some additional, I want to say biblical arguments for those who

I think have been influenced by bad theology for many years. And then in our

Semper Reformanda, we're going to get specifically down into some actual documents. That's kind of the unfiltered slash educational section of our ministry we'll get to in a minute.

But Justin, let's talk for a moment about the Bible as it relates to you.

There is no question the person has professed Christ. They're trusting in him.

They understand that received the sign of baptism. They are following in the biblical form of faith alone and then they are ensnared into sin.

First, is this a normal thing in scripture or is this kind of an abnormal?

Do we not have a lot of passages on this? And how does the Bible kind of guide us as it relates to, let's just use a really common illustration, the prodigal?

Is the prodigal a common situation amongst Christians throughout history? Justin Perdue Short answer, yes, it is a normal situation.

With respect to the prodigal, one thought that just popped into my mind is I think a lot of times people think that that parable only is illustrative of somebody coming to faith initially.

And I don't… Can I interject? Like the prodigal was not a son until he repented.

Justin Perdue Right. Like he basically was not a child of God and then he repented and became one. It's like, well, that's actually not the way the parable is told.

The parable is told that he is a child of God. He is a son and he loses his senses and runs off into a foreign land and lives recklessly and squanders everything.

That I do think is a tremendous depiction of how we tend to struggle, even mightily and for seasons of our

Christian lives. And then he, quote unquote, comes to his senses and says,

I'm going to go back to my father. And, I mean, this is not a podcast on the prodigal son, but it's just so encouraging the way that that parable unfolds where the son has his pitch all planned that he's going to come back to his father,

Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Just treat me as one of your hired servants.

Let me work for you. And of course, fast forwarding to that poignant moment when he's approaching the household and the father sees him and runs out to him.

The son begins to give his pitch that I've sinned against heaven before you, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

And before he can even get to the piece about, let me work for you as a slave, the father says, bring the best robe in the house and put it on my son.

Give him a ring and put shoes on his feet and kill the fattened calf and let's have a party because my son is found and he was lost and my son is alive again and he was dead.

Yeah, I mean, and so it's a beautiful picture, but I think that this happens for people as they have trusted

Christ, they're living life in the church and they fall into perhaps heinous sin, intentional sin for a season of time.

They're mired and they're trapped in it and are restored. God repents us, amen, praise be to his name, and I think

I'm not going to bury the lead here, John, it is our conviction based on scripture and the confessions that in that sort of season where we are mired in sin and trapped in it and then, of course, the restoration is coming in an obvious way as God repents us by his grace, but in that whole time, there is not a moment when we are not in the

Lord Jesus Christ. There is not a moment where the Holy Spirit has left us.

There is not a moment where we are lost and would go to perdition if we were to die in that moment.

We would understand that God, his gifts and his calling are irrevocable and that as we have been united to the

Lord Jesus Christ by faith, as is signified by our baptism and even our ongoing union with him in the table, that the

Lord keeps us by faith, by his grace unto salvation.

So that's really, I think, the underlying message that we want to communicate today is that your sin and you being mired in it as a

Christian is a normal experience. We're not encouraging people to go sin. Of course, when we find ourselves in sin, repentance is what we encourage people toward and plead with people to.

But we are wanting to continue to herald the fact that Christ has saved us even as we struggle and are inviting people back to their loving

Father and to their Savior. I know you want to jump in on this. Well, yeah, I was going to say the prodigal in Jesus's illustration is a horrible repenter.

He just is. And we love to think about, well, no, he repented. And it's like, no, he didn't. He repented with penance.

Right. He realized what he had done is wrong, but he was coming back to the Father with penance. And the

Father, you know, I've said this before, but the illustration is he, you know, the son starts, Father, I know

I've sinned against you and against heaven. And then the Father goes, OK, great, great, great. Hold on a second. Can someone bring the robe?

What were you saying, son? Hold on before you finish. Can someone bring the ring? Oh, and by the way, let's get the calf going.

The reason is, I mentioned this, is that the Father knew what that son was about to say. And Jesus, of course, in the illustration.

And the point of it is, you're my son. Therefore, there are no requirements to remain my son.

Right. There's a difference. Jesus uses this illustration. To the self -righteous who won't cling to Christ, he just gives them more law.

But to the sinner, like the woman at his feet, it says your sins are forgiven. Why? Because she was trusting in Christ, her sins, which were many.

And I want to say that to the believer who has found their rest in Christ, they say,

OK, I know I can't earn my righteousness. I know it's by Christ's death on the cross and his righteousness imputed, given to me.

To that person, Christ says, you are in my hand and I am in the Father's hand and no one can take you out. There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.

And there's no condemnation. Go ahead. Word. I mean, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, not even our sin.

I think we've got to own— Of any kind. Right. Of any kind. Right. We will not out -sin the grace of Christ.

You know, for those of us who've been united in him by faith, we will not out -sin the grace of Christ, and God will keep us until the end.

That is what we believe. And the confessions bear that out, and the scriptures do as well. And as confessional

Calvinists, we believe that the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit once brings to life cannot be snuffed out.

That's what we're saying. Once the life of the Spirit— Go ahead. I was just going to say, I mean, it's like Jesus doesn't break

Bruce Reed's and he doesn't put out smoldering wicks. It's like, yeah, that faith, right? It might be a faint flicker, and Jesus will fan that flame and he will sustain it.

He's not going to snuff it out. Right. And at times it can be, and this is where I want to go to this next section.

So, safe in Christ literally means you are protected from condemnation because you are robed in Christ.

Nothing can touch you. Now, that is the reality of your final status, right?

We always say you are saved. You are being saved. You will be saved. You know, the illustration of our standing before Christ is declared as finished.

We are being transformed into His image. We are being saved. And one day we will finally be saved, which is our glorification.

Now, in that process of us remaining here on earth, there are, Justin, we can't even name them all.

I had to stop writing them down at like at seven, but the warning passages in the New Testament is something we need to talk about.

Yeah, totally. I mean, so I think, let's just be direct here. It is very clear in the

New Testament that Christians can sin. Christians can be mired and trapped in sin, and that to sin and to be trapped in sin is terrible for us on every level.

And the revealed will of God is that we would not sin, right? And that we would battle against it and flee from it, et cetera.

And yet the scriptures bear witness to the fact that we will do it, and there are words to us about such things.

This might not be the one that you were planning to lead with, and that's fine. I'm just going to throw some stuff out, and you throw some stuff out, and we'll just see where this takes us.

I mean, 1 John is great on this. I mean, 1 John 1, there's the acknowledgement that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, right?

I mean, so we are sinners and we do sin. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say we have not sinned, we make Him, God, a liar, and His word is not in us. But then 1

John 2, 1 and 2, that comes immediately after that. John says, I'm writing to you so that you might not sin. And if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the

Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. So in this one passage, there's a few verses.

There's the acknowledgement of the reality of our sin. There is the acknowledgement that everybody is a sinner, and if we deny that about ourselves, then the truth is not in us.

The goal is that we wouldn't sin. But when we do, we have an advocate who is

Jesus Christ, the righteous, who pleads for us before the Father when we sin, not once we're over it.

I think that matters. I mean, even that passage, it's not a warning passage, John, so much, but it's just an acknowledgement of this reality that the believer's life will be an ongoing fight against sin, and sometimes you're going to sin.

And Christ has you then, because He pleads for you in that moment.

That's right. So this is not an exhaustive list. Just rattle it off, bro. Right. Well, this is not an exhaustive list, and we'll provide these for you in our notes if you want to go read them yourself.

But I think we would do well to understand that once we are in Christ and His Spirit lives within us, that the flesh that we now live in is not done away with.

Not only that, Satan has not been finally bound where his influence is not to be seen.

So to the New Testament writer who has the Spirit within them, we hear passages like 1

Peter 5 .8, be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

If he couldn't devour someone, meaning that trip them up or entangle them, then

Peter wouldn't write such words and such, I think, strong words with such vivid pictures,

Ephesians 4 .27, and give no opportunity to the devil. Well, what does he mean by that?

Later on, he begins to explain. But the point of it is that you can be ensnared or entangled with the devil of James 4 .7.

Submit yourselves, therefore, to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 1 John 3 .8, I think you already talked about that one, 2

Corinthians 11 .3, but I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

Just a couple of more. Ephesians 6 .12, let me just do this. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

This is quite a battle that we have on our hands. It's not just against our flesh, though that's intense.

We also battle against Satan and the cosmic powers over this present darkness.

James 1 .14, but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires, which our own desires, we know, are sinful.

The reason we read all of this is that those warning passages are not given to unbelievers.

What you also do not see in those warning passages is if you who are a believer perform such a thing are going to now be an unbeliever.

As a matter of fact, 1 John 1 .8 flat out says, if you say you're without sin, you're a liar. I always love to say

God has, from all time, from the fall of Adam until now, has expected sinners or Christians to sin because we are dual nature now.

We have a spirit within us and we have our flesh, right? This is Galatians 5 .17, the spirit wars against the flesh, the flesh against the spirit.

This is a battle that's going on and it's very clear an indication that Christians have and do fall snare to those temptations and do get devoured, meaning that they cannot be snuffed out, but they can absolutely be entrapped by sin.

Justin Perdue I know that Galatians 6 .1 has been referenced already where when any one of you is trapped or caught in sin, let those who are among you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, keeping watch on yourselves lest you too fall or be tempted.

The implication of that is that this is going to happen in the church and that then what needs to happen is such a person needs to be sought after and restored gently.

Again, I think you're having to read into the text that until that person is restored, they are apostate and are thereby in a state of damnation and condemnation and God has left them.

Where do we find that in the scriptures, that God leaves those who are

His for a season of time because of their sin? We absolutely want to uphold the biblical teaching on sin, falling into sin, being trapped in sin, and then needing to be restored.

Amen. But that period of time between the falling and the being entrapped and the restoration, that's not a season of time where the believer is lost.

Let me just read this, John, if I can from the 689 London Baptist Confession. This is chapter 5, paragraph 5 on divine providence.

This is a wonderful paragraph as to what we believe about God and the ways that He works and keeps us even through sin and really, really difficult times of failure.

Here we go. The perfectly wise, righteous, and gracious God often allows

His own children for a time to experience a variety of temptations and the sinfulness of their own hearts.

He does this to chastise them for their former sins or to make them aware of the hidden strength of the corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts so that they may be humbled.

He also does this to lead them to a closer and more constant dependence on Him to sustain them, to make them more cautious about all future circumstances that may lead to sin and for other just and holy purposes.

Whatever happens to any of His elect happens by His appointment, for His glory, and for their good.

It's a wonderful paragraph, man, that God remains God. He remains our Father. He remains sovereign and purposeful and faithful even when we are faithless and when we are floundering.

That's right. And not only that, He uses our floundering as a means to expose us to our weakness.

And to cause us to depend all the more on Him and to be humbled. Lest we be self -righteous, because we all tend to be.

That's right. There's two people that we want to talk to today for the remaining of the podcast.

We do just want two more passages of Scripture. At least refer to them. We haven't cited these yet because we reference them often, but if somebody's going to press us,

John, in terms of where we go as our last bastion of defense in arguing for what we're arguing for, it's clear there are two places.

Galatians 5 .17, which is where Paul says that the flesh and the Spirit are opposed to one another, and it keeps us from doing what we want to do.

And then obviously Romans 7, verses 15 and following, where Paul writes such famous language about wanting to do good but not being able to do it, not wanting to do evil but finding himself doing it, that whenever he wants to do good, evil lies close at hand.

He doesn't understand his own actions because he delights in the law of God and his inner man, but yet he finds himself sinning.

And he then cries out in desperation, you know, I am such a wretched man. Who's going to deliver me?

And it's thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, and there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

And so it's a very clear witness of the Scripture that Christians often find themselves in that reality, in that place, and that we are dependent completely upon the

Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness for us. And that's true for us, not just on our best day, but also on our worst day, and that Christ remains our hope and stay and our advocate, our intercessor, our righteousness, our atonement, all of that.

So yeah, now, who are we talking to for the rest of the time? Yeah, I think there's two groups of people that we want, one, to give a warning to, and number two, to give comfort to.

And because I think the podcast has really drawn in two types of people, and then there's going to be those people who have these in their life.

And the first one I want to talk to are the people who have a lot of confidence in their own flesh.

They have a lot of confidence in their own discipline. I mean, you're talking to the self -righteous in that regard.

Yeah, the self -righteous in that regard. And I've been doing a lot of work and thought on this lately, and we're not going to get into this today.

But the danger I find for some people is they put their confidence in things that I think are traditions and rituals that have been handed down to us, not based on Scripture.

And I find them enslaved into sin and often not willing to admit it and are embarrassed of it because they have done all the right things according to whatever the tradition says, and yet they find themselves enslaved in sin.

And they stay in that sin for a very long time because self -righteousness, it cannot allow for weakness.

It just can't. So the first person, and a lot of times those confidences are in how long

I've been going to church or how often I read my Bible or how much Scripture I've memorized or the disciplines of,

I don't do this, I don't do that. And they have a lot of confidence saying, well, Satan can't trip me up because my confidence is in these things, whether it is my own ability to do whatever.

And I have talked with people, and Justin, you've heard this phrase. I've even heard people say, I am so shocked that I did this, or I can never forgive myself for what

I have done, which means they had a higher expectation of themselves than they should have. Because to say that you can't forgive yourself, it means that you knew better and you did it anyways.

And Paul says, well, but for the grace of God. Justin Perdue Amen, bro. There go I. Jon Moffitt There go

I. So the self -confidence, like I will tell you, Justin and I are very weak men, and we walk around like weak men, very scared of sin.

I am terrified of sin. I know that Satan absolutely wants me to stumble and wants

Justin to stumble, and I feel it daily. Now, am I having little demons jump around all over the place, or am

I having demonic experiences? Me personally, no. But my flesh and the temptation of the world is real, and I know

Satan has put those there to trip me up. Everybody is like this,

I think. But for me, the battle against the flesh is always on my mind. In certain seasons, it's obviously more heightened and more pointed than others.

There are plenty of things that happen in my life that I regularly think the only thing

I can chalk these experiences up to are A, the curse, the fall in general, or B, spiritual warfare, where clearly

Satan and the cosmic powers over this present darkness hate me, hate my family, hate the church.

And I think those things are real, right? We all battle this stuff, and anybody who has read the

Scripture and has tried to assess these things in his or her mind is going to conclude, like, oh my gosh, this battle is intense, and we are in way over our heads here, and we are punching far above our weight.

Were it not for the grace of God and, frankly, the protection that the

Lord promises to us by His Spirit in His Son – I mean, you read it earlier, bro. John 10, 28, 29.

That's it. Where do we pillow our heads? It's the fact that Christ has us and is never going to let us go, and He says no one can take us out.

That includes Satan, and that includes our own stupidity. We are not going to pluck ourselves from Christ's hands, and that's the comfort.

But yes, you're right. We walk around weak, and we walk around vulnerable all the time.

Honestly, Christians out there, just open your eyes to not only your own struggles, but the struggles of the people around you in your own local church.

My goodness. It's so clear that we are fragile and frail on our own, and the only hope that we could ever have is

Christ and the fact that He's got us. If I can, John, I want to talk about another form of self -righteousness before we pivot to the second piece.

I know I kind of comforted people just now, and I don't mean to usurp. I do. Before you jump there, I think

I want to add to that. I'm going to kind of draw a conclusion on this, but I'll let you get the other form of righteousness.

So this matters, I think, because in having this conversation about warning the self -righteous, the kind that you mentioned is legit, like where people who are

Christians are trusting in their own performance somehow or their own disciplines or whatever.

There's another kind of self -righteousness, though, because self -righteousness by definition means that I'm trusting in myself that I'm good.

There are people who find themselves caught in sin, perhaps, but then they don't want to call it sin, and so they say, well,

I don't really care what the Bible says about this. I don't think it's sin. Conclusion, I'm fine.

I don't need mercy. I don't need grace because I'm good where I stand.

That is a kind of self -righteousness that's frightening, and that is when we need to come in with the

Word of God and even come in specifically with the law of God to warn such a person that what you're doing, it really doesn't matter what you think about it.

Here's what the Lord has said about it, and it's not okay, and it will lead to your ruin.

You know, I mean, lest you trust Christ. That's 1 John. When 1

John says, if one goes on sinning, that's what he's referring to. Yeah, it's this, yeah, but it's all this.

If you're rejecting the mercy of Christ and seeing what you're doing is sin. You're rejecting the mercy of Christ because you don't think you need it.

That's right. Because you have convinced yourself that what you're doing is not sin, you know, or perhaps you say, well, yeah, it is sin and I don't care, which is just another way of saying,

I'm sort of done with this and I don't need the mercy of Christ. Sinners, I mean, this is the thing.

Sinners who know and acknowledge, I am in desperate need of grace, I'm in desperate need of mercy, and I need

Christ because He's the only one who has done for me what I could never do for myself. Right. To those people, there is comfort, but to those who think they're good, either in their own strength, in their own discipline, or just,

I don't need Jesus because what I'm doing is fine. There isn't comfort there. No, and we won't see these in petty sins.

People aren't going to say it's okay to lie or to steal or to murder. Where we do see this the most is in a sexual conduct.

Totally. Premarital sex. It almost always has to do with sex. Right. And so that's where you're going to see, and even the

Bible will speak of that, where the debauched nature will go and change the very nature of God to justify their sins.

I think in the United States, and we're not going to get into this today, but I think this will become an interesting place to where if we, with grace and mercy and kindness, uphold the law of God here,

I think there could be some form of persecution as it relates to that. Totally, and I mean, there are a number of reasons why this is going to come to a head in the church, and this is not that podcast, so we'll talk about that later.

Just to be very clear, what we've tried to do in talking to the self -righteous for a clear in what we're saying and also what we're not saying.

We don't want to be misunderstood. All there ever is is just comfort for people who are sinning and just don't care, or who are sinning and don't think it's sin, or to try to comfort people who are trusting in their own righteousness somehow.

That's not the point. That's dangerous. But now, I think we're going to pivot to talk to another group of people that I think is much more common, at least in the

Theocast Facebook group or amongst our listeners. It's those who are struggling and those who know that they're sinners who are really questioning, could

I be struggling like I am and legitimately be in Christ? Before we pivot there, this is where I was kind of waiting.

No, it's totally fine, and the two will work together. For the person that I think is putting a lot of confidence in themselves, because I have performed in these ways, you are trusting in your own works and in your own discipline.

These warning passages that we just read about falling into temptation and beware of the devil, those are not disconnected from the rest of those sections, which then give you the conclusion of how you're protected.

For instance, in Hebrews, he says, but exhort one another every day, as long as it's called that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

How is it that the writer of Hebrews says this is how you aren't deceived by sin? It's the exhortation of believers.

We could even go to Ephesians chapter four, and he says, when the church functions properly, so the administration of God's word through the public teaching and preaching is given to the church, they do the work of the ministry, so that they will not be tossed about by every wind of doctrine.

They will not be deceitful by Satan. Those are just two examples, and for the sake of time, we're not going to keep going, but Justin, those are examples of how our confidence is found within the local body where we are administrating

God's word appropriately. That's where we find our safety. Justin Perdue Well, our confidence is found in the local body where we're gathering together, and we're partaking of the means of grace together, and we're encouraging one another and living life together.

What you said, even though I tried to mess this up in the flow of the episode, it's all worked out beautifully in the province of God.

What you're saying dovetails beautifully with what I want to say here too. What is the antidote for the person who's really struggling and is thinking, my gosh,

I'm sinning, and I don't want to sin, but I am, and I don't know that I've got enough faith, and all these kinds of things.

Am I really in Christ? Would I struggle this way if I'm a Christian legitimately? The antidote is never to look within, whenever that happens.

You mentioned a couple of great passages. I'm going to mention another one also in the book of Ephesians. We already read

Ephesians 6 -12, talking about the battle that's on our hands against cosmic powers of this present darkness and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places,

Allah, Satan, and all of the powers that make up the powers of the air, to use the language earlier in Ephesians.

It's a big deal. Then what does Paul say? Therefore, put on the armor of God. We're going to do a podcast soon on the armor of God, I think, but in short, when

Paul says put on the armor of God, the exhortation is put on Christ. This war that we're fighting against Satan and the cosmic powers of this present darkness is real.

Y 'all better put on Jesus because He is the only way to stand against this kind of warfare, and the things that He exhorts us to have nothing to do with us.

It's called the armor of God. I think that's significant, but even the things he lists, like having fastened on the belt of truth.

Whose truth is that? Not yours. It's God's. Truth about what? Himself and us, and ultimately about redemption.

That truth centers on Christ. Put on the breastplate of righteousness. Whose righteousness is that? It isn't yours,

I promise you. You're going to wage war against the devil with your own righteousness. Good luck with that. What he's talking about clearly is the righteousness of Christ that's been counted to us by faith.

So that's where we look. He put on shoes for your feet, the readiness of the gospel of peace.

Well, what is that? The good news of peace. Well, it's peace with God. How? Through the

Lord Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. It's not you. Take up the shield of faith.

Notice that it's not the shield of faithfulness. It's not your fidelity to God. Who are you trusting?

I don't care how imperfectly either. You might very imperfectly and weakly be trusting, and by weakly,

I mean W -E -A -K -L -Y, trusting in the Lord Jesus, and yet the object of your faith, namely

Christ, saves you. And we could go on. The helmet of salvation. Well, whose salvation is that?

Salvation is of who? The Lord. The Lord. That's right. I mean, we could go on, man. No, that's good.

That's an antidote, though. Don't look to yourself. Put on Jesus and look to Him.

Trust Him. Cast yourself upon Him. And I think that in time, comfort will come as you continue to remind yourself of this daily, but ultimately, as you gather with saints and you sit under preaching, hopefully, that's going to point you to Him.

That's right. So this last few minutes that we have, Justin, I think we need to get down into the dirty section of this to where it really gnaws at the conscience of some people in the self -righteous camp and those who are,

I think, ensnared in sin, and I'm praying that this podcast will be sent to people who find themselves trapped, who want to repent, but one, they have had really bad theology given to them.

Penance is what they think is necessary. So a couple of passages that we want to talk about that we alluded to in the beginning, but let's just even start with 1

John 2. It says, My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the

Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation or the payment of our sins, not only ours, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Here's what is important, is that every time John or the writers, when they speak of sin, you never hear them throw a caveat, sin or a list of sins, or sin but this, except for this sin.

You know, that some people would even say if someone commits suicide, then that is a sin that cannot be forgiven.

Well, then that means there's something that can separate you from the love of God, including your own actions, which cannot be the case.

Otherwise, Paul wouldn't have said that multiple times. I think it's important that when we're talking about the story of the prodigal son, he pretty much committed some serious heinous crimes against the

Father. You would look at, Justin, you had mentioned this earlier, we look at the Apostle Peter and David.

Let's just pick out the three big ones, two being legitimate real men, one being hypothetical.

And you look at every single one of those stories, you don't see God rejecting them or pushing them off or calling into question the legitimacy of the relationship child adopted, and yet they have committed.

I mean, just thinking about the Apostle Peter, it wasn't just cussing, you know.

Justin Perdue No, I mean, he denied the Lord Jesus Christ, but Jesus is clear before it even happens.

Like, Satan wants to do this. He wants to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you. There's Christ's intercessory work, right?

And when you've turned against, strengthen your brothers. And it's not as though, like between Peter's denial of Jesus and his turning, which

I think happens pretty much instantaneously, by the way, because when Peter looks at the Lord Jesus Christ and Jesus looks at him, when

Peter's standing in the courtyard upon his denial, it's like he knows what he's done. He said he would never do it.

The thing he swore he would never do, he's done. And he's wrecked. Well, you know, I mean, anyway, I don't think there's a lot of time that transpires, but it's not as though Peter's relationship with Jesus was ever in question, to your point.

Yeah, going to David, you know, Nathan the prophet doesn't question the man's faith in God other than his blindness to his own sin, which is when you think about ensnared, devour, deceit, all of those.

Justin Perdue Trapped, hired. Jon Moffitt Right, cloaking it. There's a cloak and dagger kind of a deal going on here.

There's like this, you know, shadows and hiding. And I think from what we have seen from Scripture, hopefully your confidence can be in two things.

One, that if you are in sin, you can have confidence in the advocate, not yourself.

You can have confidence in God's promises. There is nothing in Scripture that would indicate of one who is in faith in Christ, even if they're trapped in sin.

If your faith is in Christ, there is no sin you cannot repent of. First John does not indicate in chapter one or chapter two that there is a limit to your repentance or there is a sin that you cannot repent of.

The only thing you can't repent of is unbelief, and that is given to you. So if you have the gift of faith that's been granted to you by the

Father, the second gift that's been given to you is endless repentance. And I know that sounds radical,

Justin. People hear me say right, you know, endless repentance, and what are they thinking I'm saying? What they're thinking,

JP, is that, John, if you say that or emphasize that, then people will just sin however they want.

And there will be no skin in the game, and people won't feel the need to repent. Justin Perdue No. Listen, you read those warning passages and how horrible sin is.

There's no way. That's not the case. What I'm trying to say is that person who is hearing this podcast right now and they're like, there's no hope for me.

I can't do it. I've gone too long. I've gone too far. There's too much required.

The kindness of the Father is leading us to repentance. His grace is sufficient. His mercy is there.

You can be restored to the intimate, loving relationship into the body of Christ.

Justin, this is why even in Church Discipline, at moments when a Christian is being so fooled by sin that we have to treat them like an unbeliever for a while to shock their system to say, do you realize what you are missing out on?

The glory and the joy of the body of Christ. We're going to have to let Satan have its way for you.

So when you are fully sapped and dry, we're going to refresh you with mercy again.

I mean, even in that sense, Church Discipline is a means of restoration, and that's how God gave it to us. It's not a weapon to bludgeon people with.

It's an instrument of restoring sinners because that's what God's in the business of doing.

That's right. Yeah, totally. Well, Justin, going over, we have already discussed that there are traditions that have different opinions on this.

Some of these traditions are very old. Some of them are new. We're going to look at the varying traditions that have maybe different perspectives on apostasy and assurance.

That is going to be a part of our Semper Reformanda podcast, aka class, however you want to look at that.

But for those of you that would like to, one, join what we are doing, you can do so by joining

Semper Reformanda. That is a ministry that has two parts to it. It's a podcast where Justin and I continue the conversation really on a deeper, unfiltered level where we kind of let you in on the backside of the conversation.

And then number two, we have groups that you can join either online or locally where you can then discuss this podcast with other listeners in your area.

These groups are being formulated and we should be launching them by now. And if you would like to start one or be a part of one in your local area, just go to theocast .org

and you can learn more about that. Justin, it's a good conversation, my friend. We have a lot coming our way.

I'll just throw this out there. You and I are getting ready to do a book study or a book review, I should say, of Lordship Salvation with John MacArthur's book.

That's coming up. Or at least an episode on Lordship where we'll talk some about it. Yep. And then Armor of God.

Man, we got some good stuff. We do. I just wish we could record more than once a week, but this is what we can do.