1st John Overview: Part 2 – Key Themes and Teachings | Puritan Reformed Church

All right, good Sabbath. He is risen. Okay a few announcements.

So first of all Mr. McNair was examined for communicate membership and passed his examination and is covenanting today

Also, mr. Ethan Reese took his novice examination and was given a passing with honors

Congratulations there. Now.

We will be continuing with first John We have the

Overview that we'll be completing this so you have hopefully if you don't if you don't have the handout raise your hand right now

If you need a handout so we need two up front and then we will so we'll have a

We'll also be singing Psalm 86 which is a two -parter and And We'll have a baptism and obviously we'll have the

Lord's Supper and I'm gonna be Changing things up just a little bit as the Lord's table gets a little more full

I'm gonna be sitting down there this time to administer that way

It'll be easier for people to see With the administration my family will just sit there because that way they'll be easy to have them next to me

But that way they can see down the line that'll be easier to see the administration of the elements

So just a little bit of change and how we're sitting Okay All right, then we're gonna

Begin, let's begin with a call to worship Please stand for the reading of God's Word Call to worship is from Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 4 through 9

Hear O Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one You shall love the

Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your strength And these words which

I command you today shall be in your heart You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house

And when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes

You should write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. You may be seated.

Let's pray Father as we come before you we ask that you would help us to set our minds are right to focus on your worship we pray for Many that are currently away we pray for the

Shaffer's that you would Bless Ariana with recovery from giving birth and help them to return soon

We pray for the marshes who are at a family reunion and ask that you would

Cause that to be fruitful for your glory and they cause them to be returned safely to us

Father we pray that you would Bless all of us Help us in the remainder of this

Sabbath day to use it well Help us to have our thoughts and words Be honoring to you

And to be edifying to each other Pray that you would Bless our time of fellowship

To follow Father we ask that you would Help us to see ourselves rightly

That you'd help us to See sin in our lives And to repent of it and put it off We ask that you would

Forgive us For sin we pray that you would Look upon us not only as innocent

But as righteous And that you would give us Your favor based upon the righteousness

Of Christ Father we ask that you would Bless us with Illumination to know you more

And more and to have the word Read and preached and sung To be useful to us

That it wouldn't just be forms That pound on our ears But that we would see our hearts

Being renewed Father we ask that You'd help us to be quick to forgive

Each other To be a merciful people To be a kind and generous people

A hospitable people Father we ask That you would help us to Love justice

And mercy and humility Father we ask That you would

Bless us to be wise And holy and righteous We know that We need your wisdom

So we ask that you would give it to us And make us wise We know that our desires and affections

And goals are off Course and we ask that you would Make us holy to be focused upon Your glory

Father we know that Our choices would be foolishness And wickedness

Were it not for your mercy toward us So we ask that you would help us To make righteous decisions

Father we know that we have Curse of strife And toil

And we have the curse of Problems of health

And death that would come to us And so we ask Father that you would

Give to us A prospering and fruitful work That you would give us peace

And that you would Cause us to have good health And long life

And to be fruitful And see the works of our hands established We build in vain

Unless You bless and establish the work Father we pray

That you would give these things To us We thank you for The addition of little ones

To our numbers and we ask That you help us to bear with each other's weaknesses Father we thank you for New members

Father we thank you for Causing us to mature We ask that you would continue

To answer these prayers that you would Continue to add to our numbers And add to our maturity Father we ask that you would

Protect us from the wicked Who are powerful The mighty men

Of the land that are Wicked Father we pray that you would

Cause this Effort to amend the Arizona Constitution to include a right to kill

Children that you would Cause that amendment to fail We ask that you would

Remove the wicked from ruling over us And give us godly magistrates Father we pray that you would

Give to us resources And that you would Raise up men fit for Public office in the church and state

Father we ask these Things knowing that you

Will give to us all good gifts And so we pray this In the name of Jesus Christ Amen Please open your psalters

To Psalm 86 Please stand for the reading of God's word

Psalm 86 Part 1 A prayer of David Bow down your ear

O Lord In order to hear me For I am needy

And I'm poor Preserve my soul For I am set apart

You're my God Save your trusting Servant Be merciful to me

Daily I cry To you O Lord Rejoice your servant's soul

For unto you Lord do I lift up my soul You Lord Are good

Ready to forgive Plenteous in mercy

To those that call on you Give ear O Lord unto my prayer

Attend To the voice of my supplications You'll answer

When I call in trouble Among the gods There's none like unto you

O Lord Neither are their works Like your works

All nations You've made Will come and worship you O Lord They will glorify

Your name Part 2 How great and how wondrous

Are you and all your works For truly

You alone are God Lord teach Me your ways

I will walk in your truth O unite my Heart to fear your name

O Lord my God I will praise you with all my heart Glorify your

Name evermore For great Is the mercy that you've given me

You delivered my Soul out of Sheol O God See how the proud

Have risen against me And assemblies of Violent men have sought

After me Seek to do my soul harm And have not set you

Before their eyes But you O Lord Are a God full of compassion

You are gracious And long suffering O plentiful

Are your great mercy And truth Turn to me And have mercy on me

Give strength to your servant Save Your handmaiden's son

Show Me a token of the good That they Who hate me might see it

And be shamed For you Lord Helped and comforted

Me Turn back to part one

We'll sing part one now Mouder to him

For O Preserve my soul

For I am Set apart You're my

God Save your Trusting servant Be Merciful to Me daily

I cry to you

Rejoice your servant Soul Up my soul

You're good Ready to Forgive Plenty Yes in mercy

To those that Call on Give my prayer

Attend to Of my Supplications You'll answer

When Trouble odds there

Is none like Unto you All sins you've made

Will come Worship you O Lord they

Will glorify Please be seated

Okay so we're in 1st John We got through looking at the prologue and the conclusion and we looked at them side by side this morning

We also looked at the B and B prime sections looking at this idea of the true and false testimonies in those sections

We looked at C and C prime which had all sorts of linguistic connections with the idea of the keeping of commandments being how we love the idea of knowing being mentioned over and over abiding again loving and calling people liars and so we were taught all sorts of ways to make sure we could call people liar

Nope you said that you're a liar We have that name being able to be used so this is an apologetic where John is teaching us how to deal with false claims from false prophets and false professors when they bring stuff to us so we can deal with showing people to be false professors false teachers and deal with false prophecy so we're going to continue now in section

D so that's page 7 of the handout we're going to be looking at page 7 we're looking at D and D prime so these sections 1

John 2 starting at verse 12 we're going to read through verse 17 I write to you little children because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake

I write to you fathers because you have known him who is from the beginning

I write to you young men because you have overcome the wicked one I write to you little children because you have known the father

I have written to you fathers because you have known him who is from the beginning

I have written to you young men because you are strong and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the wicked one do not love the world or the things in the world if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the father but is of the world and the world is passing away and the lust of it but he who does the will of God abides forever now the other section to contrast when we talk about overcoming not contrasting comparing talking about overcoming

Nikeo which is the root for the brand Nike you know Nike is just Greek for victory or conquering is the word that they are using here for this overcoming and so we find here in D Prime verses chapter 4 verses 6 to sorry 1

John chapter 4 verses 4 through 6 reads as follows you are of God little children and have overcome them because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world they are of the world therefore they speak as of the world and the world hears them we are of God he who knows

God hears us he who is not of God does not hear us by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error now what we are given here is this idea in D when we look at chapter 2 verses 12 through 14 you have got all of these categories of believers and they are all said to have faith they are all said to have faith its kind of tautology right what do all believers have faith so to be a believer is to be one who believes to be one who has faith and there is these different levels of maturity and so I want to remind you what does it say of the little children well verse 12 their sins are forgiven for his name's sake for Christ's name's sake so they have the forgiveness of sins with an immature faith and we see that teaching from Jesus right he said faith even the size of a mustard seed was sufficient for prayer that would allow for this moving of mountains so ok that is sufficient for a prayer and so saved persons have faith and they are able to even give prayers and have them be accepted in Christ so we are forgiven for Christ's name's sake also little children in verse 13 it says

I write to you little children because you have known the father so the knowledge of the father now saving faith is a knowledge of God John 17 3 this is everlasting life to know the only true

God and Jesus Christ whom he sent and we think about little children they are forgiven their sins are forgiven for Christ's name's sake and they know the father now let's look at young men

I write to you young men in the middle of verse 13 I write to you young men because you have overcome the wicked one well you remember we were reading earlier

I don't know I can't remember what I've read to you versus like the like dozens of times I've read first John in the last week so I don't know

I'm just going to pretend like I read this to you recently like we read in first John earlier it says that this is what overcomes the world your faith and so this idea of overcoming the world overcoming sin overcoming satan these are all these are in league sin satan and the world so we can say of the world of satan of sin whatever they would all be sort of saying the same thing so overcoming the world the faith is what overcomes the world but it yields a love it yields obedience to the commandments of God and and as it gives that as it gives that obedience to the commandments of God that law keeping the application of the law is how we exercise dominion the application of the law is how we exercise dominion the law of God teaches us it's an instruction set for how to exercise dominion so young men overcome the wicked one by their faith and then in applying the law more and more they're having victories in this world in this lifetime over the wicked one it's also said of young men at the bottom of verse 14

I have written to you young men because you are strong and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the wicked one so there's this repetition of the overcoming of the wicked one the victory over the wicked one young men learn to do useful work the glory of a young man is his strength now this strength here is a strength more of faith think about young men generally and the idea of their strength physical but here we're talking about their strength of faith and because of the strength of their faith once you become a young man and the novice test is meant to help you to be established as a child to become a young man it's meant to go okay here's stuff to study so you can be stable and you can focus on now contributing, accomplishing significant work the deploying of your strength and so this idea of using the strength and this strength comes from the fact that the word of God abides in them so there's this more of the knowledge of God in them than in the little children little children have some knowledge of God little children in the faith the young man in this faith knows more so how do you grow in maturity you grow in the knowledge of God John 17 17

Jesus prays for the church and he says sanctify them by your truth your word is truth so the word of God is truth we get the truth from the word of God we are sanctified by the truth sanctification is by the knowledge of the truth and so we want to know what

God's word says and that's how we mature we mature as we know the truth our faith gets bigger a small faith believes very little a big faith believes very much a cancerous faith is very big but it has lots of unhealthy body to it what's that called that's superstition when you believe things that are not demonstrable from the word of God you might believe lots of stuff in fact all of us have lots of things we believe that we should get rid of we want to believe what the scriptures teach and we want to have our minds be purified of false doctrine and so as we focus on having certainty in the words of truth and we get rid of things that contradict it and we realize all sorts of false doctrine to put off and throw away we find that cancerous growths are removed and healthy growth comes so young men have more healthy growth of their faith have more knowledge of the truth than little children of the faith and with fathers what is said of fathers 1

John 2 verse 13 I write to you fathers because you have known him who is from the beginning now that could be referring to the father or the son or the

Holy Spirit yes right that's what it is the knowledge of God so fathers know

God that's interesting the little ones know God the young men know

God the fathers know God the little ones have their sins forgiven and they're just that's what they are you become stronger as your faith is increased and as you have assurance of salvation it gives you strength to go out and do stuff and then there's the fathers and the fathers know him who is from the beginning then we're told in chapter 2 verse 14

I have written to you fathers because you have known him who is from the beginning well that's just the exact same thing that was before and how is that different from the little ones because the little children have known the father ok well so the fathers have an increased knowledge of God and when you have repetition in the

Bible what does that mean emphasis right but normally on the right syllable so emphasis is given when you repeat and so we have fathers know

God fathers know God in other words they have a deep knowledge of God so you want to mature in the faith grow in the knowledge of God one of the ways you show a love for God is by showing that you want to keep learning right if we love

God we're going to love the truth because the way we possess God is by possessing the truth so the knowledge of God is going to be a thing you chase after if you love

God so verse 15 do not love the world or the things in the world if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him ok remember

Jesus saying you need to hate basically everything and love him like you got to hate father and mother and it's like whoa but I asked this earlier we were told to love them to honor them well it's not literally to hate them the idea is a comparison of value which thing do you see as more valuable are you willing to lose even family for the sake of the glory of God do not love the world be willing to give up the world

Jesus literally was offered the world by Satan and he gave it up out of love of the father

I then received it right when you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness you get all the other stuff too so you don't actually lose it's a order of priority and it's an order of what you're getting you seek the kingdom of God you seek

God you value God above everything and you don't view these things as the good you view them as things that you can use to honor

God with so you still have the definition of how you use the world and the things in the world to glorify

God so what do you do with your reputation you use it to honor God and you spend it to get other people to learn about God what do you do with your property you use it to honor

God and you spend it to cause an increase in the knowledge of God what do you do with your pleasures you use them as strengths that are meant to help you and you share them lawfully like food and hospitality you use those things to seek to beautify the truth authority is not an end in itself you use authority to honor the

Lord and strength or power is not an end in itself you use it to honor the

Lord none of these things are bad to have but they all have to be used in a way that honors the Lord so the love of the world is placing the world or the things in it as more valuable than God when money is worshipped you call it mammon so making any of these things into your

God into the thing you value highest so do not love the world or the things in the world if anyone loves the world the love of the

Father is not in him for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the

Father but is of the world so it's coming from the alliance of the wicked

Satan the world and the flesh as opposed to the alliance of the righteous Christ is the king of the church the church as opposed to the world and the spirit as opposed to the flesh and so the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life the lust of the flesh the lust of the flesh has to do with making pleasure the good the lust of the eyes has to do with acquisitiveness wanting to get stuff making money your good and the pride of life is about power thinking

I can do this I can make this happen I can do it all I can have it all that idea of thinking that you have the power to do stuff in yourself pleasure is not the good money is not the good power is not the good you should ask yourself which of those things are you most drawn to are you most drawn to pleasures are you most drawn to power are you most drawn to money if you are most drawn if you have the lust of the flesh is it overwhelming temptation desire for pleasure physical pleasures then what you need to do is to think upon meditate upon the right use of pleasures and their wrong use and how they are ultimately dissatisfying this philosophy is called hedonism when you think that pleasure is the good worth chasing and it's important to think on this when you make pleasures your god if you don't get them if you don't get the pleasures you want you just find yourself angry frustrated why don't

I get this and if you do get them you find that getting those pleasures all the time they start to become disappointing it starts to be a thing that isn't as exciting as it once was and you have to get more and more of it in order for it to have the same level of effect as the previous times and so it consumes your time and resources it becomes less enjoyable with more and you become bored so the hedonic paradox is the paradox that if you can't get the pleasures you're frustrated and if you can get the pleasures you get bored pleasure makes a bad god the lust of the eyes with property seeking money by the way with pleasure people who are priestly who are particularly drawn to beauty who are particularly drawn to relationships pleasantness that type of personality set tends to have more of a struggle with the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes tends to be a problem for the prophetic money is something that if you're intellectually inclined if you're focused on truth money is something that it's very easy when you're cynical to just go well whatever people are terrible everything's the worst if I just have money meh there's a sort of cynicism about money and the ability to make stuff happen and thinking that relationships don't really matter and power doesn't really matter that the way you can really have your ability to be left alone to do what you want think about what you want is just have a lot of money and then you can use that money to get what you want when the time comes the lust of the eyes wanting to acquire wanting to have all the resources that that idea that money solves all of the problems when money becomes your god it becomes disappointing because you find that you can't really get everything you want with the money it still requires enormous amounts of work in fact the reality is that often times you can be very wealthy pay for all the pleasures you could possibly want and you can't enjoy them because of the stress and anxiety of things the more you have the more you're worried about people trying to take it away the more you're worried about people using you the more you have difficulty trusting it it kind of has this isolating effect sometimes so unless you use money to serve other people and view it as instrumental for the glory of God the money becomes a sort of prison and you put your trust in it and it disappoints because you can lose it and with the pride of life with power you think

I can just domineer I can make this stuff happen I can just push through I can make it work

I have me I'm competent I can make this stuff happen until you can't until thing after thing after thing falls apart and you can't make it happen you can't get the thing done you can't will it to happen and so the pride of life that you think you can make things happen you can do it you can you can push it through that power tendency for those who are kingly who really focus on getting stuff done wanting to make it happen the pride of life is a great danger these are temptations we must look to God to bless the lawful use of pleasures we must look to God to bless property and establish the work of our hands we must look to God to give power and to be our savior and to be effectual thinking these things are the good is not of the

Father but is of the world and the world is passing away and the lust of it the desire for it is itself even perishing but he who does the will of God abides forever now in D prime the counterpart here verse 4 chapter 4 verse 4 you are of God little children and have overcome them because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world they are of the world therefore they speak as of the world and the world hears them so there are false professors false prophets there's doctrine that's presented that's worldly doctrine the world hears its own but we're not of the world we're from God our spiritual life comes from God and he who knows

God hears us hears the church but hears the apostles the apostolic deposit he who is not of God does not hear us the message of the church the apostolic deposit is rejected by those who are not of God it's rejected by the world by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error the spirit of truth is what

God has revealed and when people teach what God has revealed in his word that is a spirit that we should test and find true when a spirit is teaching a prophet is teaching things that are contrary to or outside of the word of God we should find that spirit to be a spirit of lies

John tells us to call people liars a lot apparently he says that person's a liar that person's a liar he's showing us how to tell our overcoming the world is by overcoming false doctrine and this is what overcomes the world faith in true doctrine so page 8 part

E its counterpart E prime this is going to deal with apostasy and antichrist and knowing the truth

E chapter 2 verses 18 to 27 little children it is the last hour and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming even now many antichrists have come so this is back in the first century and it's called the last hour last hour of what?

last hour of the old covenant antichrist is coming and antichrist has already come and spirit of antichrist is in the world those are all things that are being communicated there now spirit of antichrist doesn't mean a disembodied spirit we're supposed to test the spirits and that's being said of prophets so we're dealing with antichrist the particular antichrist which again

I think is dealing with Titus being the man of sin who goes into the temple and that carrying through the office of pontifics maximus through emperors and being dealt with we also have the various ways that there are antichrists antichrists are those who oppose

Christ who ape Christ, steal his offices go into the church and try to speak lies, false churches this idea of false prophets speaking against the truth little children it's the last hour and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming even now many antichrists have come by which we know that it is the last hour so a bunch of antichrists were coming in that time because it was prophesied that a bunch of wicked false prophets opposing the true

Christ would come at this period wrapping up this great persecution that was occurring in the first century verse 19 they went out from us but they were not of us so they were people who had been a part of the visible church but they were not elect they had been a part of the visible church but they were not elect they went out from the visible church but they were not of the elect for if they had been of us they would have continued with us so the elect persevere they don't persevere if they're not elect because they were never believers they were never really believers but they went out that they might be made manifest that idea of manifest making things plain making things known making things visible showing stuff that is a theme over and over again in first john this idea of making things seen making it visible making it understood that none of them were of us but you have an anointing from the holy one and you know all things remember jeremiah 31 how it talks about in the new covenant there won't be any need for teachers anymore this is appeal to that language john's applying it to first century christians you have an anointing from the holy one and you know all things i have not written to you because you do not know the truth but because you know it and that no lies of the truth so notice this they have integrity they know that no lies of the truth in other words they believe the law of contradiction no lies of the truth also they know the truth that's been revealed in the scriptures they believe the prophetic word they believe the apostolic deposit they believe the word of god how do they know all things we talked about that before it's not that they have omniscience it's that they have the whole counsel of god revealed to them in the scriptures and they have the holy spirit who has anointed them to have knowledge he's illuminated them he's given them the new birth he's caused them to receive the baptism of the holy spirit so this anointing from the holy one is their illumination it's them being given knowledge verse 22 who is a liar but he who denies that jesus is the christ that's a denial with the mouth a denial here false doctrine that person is an antichrist who denies the father and the son whoever denies the son does not have the father either he who acknowledges the son has the father also this would be a big problem in the first century in the church you'd have lots of people claiming to be believers in the doctrine of the old testament and then denying christ and they go no they don't have the father if they don't have the son if they reject the son they reject the father if they believed moses they would believe jesus verse 24 therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning this doctrine from the beginning this is sort of a a pun from the beginning the doctrine that's been revealed but also from the beginning of the messianic ministry and the apostolic ministry the doctrine that was given before remember in galatians when the apostle paul talks about how that they should believe the gospel that he first delivered to them and then he's shocked he says you know how are you so soon departing from the gospel that i delivered to you this new fake gospel comes to you and you abandon the true gospel so quickly and so the receiving of the apostolic message at the beginning of the apostolic ministry in the early times whenever these people received this message and since john was an apostle to the jews right he was one of the 12 and we're talking about people judeans and jews in other parts of the aspera be receiving these things and this would be people who are likely to have been hearing the message early on because they were either in judea during the ministry of christ or because the apostles went to the jews first and then to the greeks as they went out throughout the roman empire at least earlier on in their locality therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning the word of god has been true from the beginning the word of god has had a consistent base and been building on itself from the beginning and the apostolic ministry came and very early there were heresies of people trying to pull people away if what you heard from the beginning abides in you you also will abide in the son and in the father and this is the promise that he has promised us eternal life so being careful to hold on to the doctrine that came from the apostles as opposed to invented doctrines verse 26 these things i have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you but the anointing which you have received from him abides in you and you do not need that anyone teach you why are you writing a letter then john the point is not that there is no utility in human teachers not that there is no utility in the writing of scripture but the holy spirit is the true teacher and these are means that are to be used and we should realize that the holy spirit will preserve us and we don't need to worry that we could lose or lose our faith we just need to do the next duty we need to be concerned to deal with whatever falsehood is in front of us at that time but the anointing which you have received from him abides in you and you do not need that anyone teach you now one of the things here that we need to be aware of is people who claim to have special doctrines that are not in the scriptures they want to be teachers because they say well we have you might have the scriptures but there is extra stuff the extra stuff is something that is what gnostics provided this idea that there was a secret knowledge a special knowledge and it was something that maybe might be sold we live in a day of social media gurus who sell knowledge and this would have been a time where there were sort of you know roman empire gurus going around saying

I have twelve rules that will make it so you can properly deal with such and such and for this fee

I will go through it with you in a series of lessons to do that as opposed to the public teaching of the public word made available so you do not need that anyone teach you they have the word and they have the anointing of the teacher but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things the whole council of God and is true the anointing is teaching them concerning all things and the anointing is true the anointing is not of a lie it is not a lie and just as it has taught you you will abide in him now quakers and others have sometimes tried to use this to say well the anointing is a special thing that I have got well that makes the doctrine secret again it makes it a you thing it is not just like promptings that are personal the idea is there is a public word and the

Holy Spirit illuminates you to know it and we all have the same public word and we can read that word using the rules of grammar and context and logic and we are looking for a literal meaning so we are protected from false teachers contradiction lies, private doctrine and from people trying to manipulate us emotionally now in E prime chapter 4 verses 1 to 3 we have the following beloved do not believe every spirit but test the spirits whether they are of God because many false spirits have gone out into the world by this you know the spirit of God every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God that particular doctrine is being shown to be true and that particular doctrine is being able to be given as a test any rejection of the truth revealed about Christ, any rejection of previous revelation shows a teacher to be a false teacher and it shows prophecy to be false, remember the

Deuteronomy tests the test of contrariness to false there is a previous revelation and there is that test of presumption where they make a prophecy and it doesn't come true those things show a prophet to be false speaking in accordance with the word confessing what was previously revealed makes a teacher shown to be true and this is the spirit of the

Antichrist which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world so the spirit of Antichrist denies doctrines one of those doctrines it denies is that Christ has come in the flesh one of those doctrines it denies is that Christ has accomplished his work and so we have this false doctrine known as docetism that denied that Christ came in a physical body we have some of the

Jews who denied that Jesus was the Christ and were saying they were waiting for a different Messiah and you would have people who assert a false view of Christ would constitute examples of this again, that spirit of Antichrist was already in the world we're not waiting for some future thing, this was a thing that was happening then this occurred in the first century page 9, part

F chapter 2 verses 28 and 29 say the following and now little children abide in him that when he appears he may have confidence, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming if you know that he is righteous you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him, so this idea that we want to not reject the brotherhood but instead look to those who are practicing righteousness, if you believe the gospel you have been born of Christ, and if you have been born of Christ then you will practice righteousness and only those who have been born of Christ can practice righteousness now, here's the thing, you can do the outward forms of righteousness and not believe, but you still deal with the outward forms of righteousness as an evidence and if somebody professes but doesn't have the outward forms of righteousness then you say you're a liar that's what

John has taught us before you call them to repent now, abiding in Christ staying in the doctrine staying in the church help us to not have shame in the judgment now

F prime and by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him for if our hearts condemn us

God is greater than our heart and knows all things, when you look at your own righteousness, it's not going to assure you, it's going to condemn you, but if our heart condemns us which is greater, the judgment of our heart or the judgment of God the judgment of God God knows all things beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God, so one of the things you can do that helps you to have boldness, is to put off sin, because it stops distracting you, so even though your assurance is not based upon doing good works, there is a way when you sin that it undermines your assurance not that you build your assurance on doing good works but that when you sin what it does is it makes you miserable, and it makes you doubting that's a discipline that God brings, to make it so that you put off sin beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God, now we should believe that we are forgiven in Christ and there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus we have confidence toward God and whatever we ask, we receive from Him, and if we are confident that we are forgiven in Christ, righteous in Christ whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep

His commandments well, we're counted as righteous in Christ, and we do those things that are pleasing in His sight we're counted righteous in Christ, but as a church as a corporate body the we, there are blessings that come as a corporate body, when we apply what

God commands, and we pray together for the things that God commands, verse 23, and this is

His commandment that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ and love one another ok, so the first table of the law requires us to believe the first commandment the doctrine that's revealed we use the means in the second commandment that He commands to know

Him we do the things that are worshipped with the right attitude in the third commandment, not hypocritically and we use the appointed times that God gives us with the fourth commandment we love one another by honoring legitimate authority not murdering, not committing adultery, not stealing, not bearing false witness and harming each other's reputations unnecessarily, and not coveting these are being dealt with as law this is not a text that's talking about justification by faith alone it's talking about the first table of the law and the second table of the law as He gave commandment verse 24 now he who keeps

His commandments abides in Him, and He in Him, and by this we know that He abides in us, by the

Spirit whom He has given us, so we test others by the commandment keeping and we know for ourselves by the witness of the

Spirit that He's given to us those are two tests for two different places 10 page 10, looking at G and G prime chapter 3, verses 1 -3 behold what manner of love the

Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God therefore the world does not know you because it did not know

Him, beloved now we are children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be but we know that when

He is revealed, we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is and everyone who has this hope in Him, purifies

Himself just as He is pure our confidence in the victory of the

Lord Jesus Christ our hope in the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ helps us to have a proper motive and to seek to be purified to seek to be sanctified how much do you throw yourself into tasks that you are sure are fruitless like when somebody walks up to you and says you can't do this, you're not going to be able to do it, there's not going to be any progress, you won't get anything out of it, there's not going to be any rewards at all, but I want you to try really hard what is the effect?

It demotivates you from action postmillennialism and the victorious return of Christ motivates us to personally seek holiness and to then rule the things under our authority so as to advance the knowledge of God now everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as Christ is pure now

G prime for this is the message that you heard from the beginning that we should love one another not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother and why did he murder him?

because his works were evil and his brothers righteous, right? notice above in the section

G there was this idea of the world doesn't know Christ it doesn't know you, it scorns him, it doesn't care about you it doesn't care about him and here we see that scorn is also manifested as a hatred for the way in which the righteousness of the church reveals the unrighteousness of the world, why did he murder him?

because his works were evil and his brothers righteous remember the story with Lot when he's in Sodom there's people that come to visit, they're angels he brings them in his hospitality and Lot has these people that have to pound on his door demanding that they have the ability to sexually abuse these men angels, they thought they were men and Lot's response is maybe don't sexually abuse them, could we,

I mean just a thought and the response is who made you our judge?

just saying don't the response is who made you our civil magistrate who made you the one to pass judgment over us, are you a king that you can pass judgment on us?

this like ridiculous response to the sodomite doctrine of microtransgressions you are judging us because his works were evil and his brothers righteous he thought

I will kill him and then I don't have to deal with his good works anymore let's do this the persecution of the righteous comes from that motive to eliminate their testimony do not marvel my brethren if the world hates you we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren that's the difference between a church and the world is shown in the love of the brethren have you ever interacted with a liberal minister from a fake church?

they hate nobody as much as they hate conservative Christians they always side with the unbelieving world and throw the conservative

Christian under the bus you know what you're saying might be right, notice they never go it's right yeah you're totally right it might be right but the way you're saying it, you need to be more effeminate and wispy while you're telling the people the things they need to stop doing then you add the effeminate and wispy tone and they go still too harsh you know

I'm starting to think that maybe there is no amount of wispiness and no amount of effeminacy that I could put on that would make you think my rebuking of sin is acceptable perhaps maybe, just maybe you don't like me telling the truth and you just hate me and you hate me telling the truth that's an uncharitable interpretation liberal

Christians, liberal pastors love to throw conservatives under the bus they love to criticize them, they always criticize to the right, they always throw grenades to the right, they always throw the

Molotov cocktails to the right why? because the people that are trying to apply the

Bible more rigorously show their sins even without saying it the practice show their sins so do not marvel my brethren if the world hates you we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren but the love of the brethren is a mark of the church he who does not love his brother abides in death whoever hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him, this is a test it's called the test of love the mark of love does a believer, does a professing believer have this mark, does a church have this mark by this we know love because he laid down his life for us and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren but whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him how does the love of God abide in him?

notice this isn't some like you know, hey, how can you say you love your brother if you're walking over and stealing from him it doesn't say that it's saying when you see your brother in need and you have the means to solve the need and you won't use it that's an act of hatred that's an act of showing you don't believe in the communion of the saints, that's an act that would suggest that the confession of faith is false think about that not doing a good work when it's called for is a sufficient basis to say that's not a credible profession unless you repent but whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue but in deed and in truth. Does that remind you of James 2?

Right, with the idea that you say be warmed and be filled but you don't give them anything, right, when you pray but you don't give anything so now here we are we're at the center of the book this is the heart of the chiasm

H page 11 H chapter 3 verses 4 to 10 whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness and sin is lawlessness and you know that he was manifested to take away our sins and in him there is no sin whoever abides in him does not sin whoever sins has neither seen him nor known him little children let no one deceive you he who practices righteousness is righteous just as he is righteous he who sins is of the devil for the devil has sinned from the beginning for this purpose the son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil whoever has been born of God does not sin for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin because he has been born of God in this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest if you have a pen of any variety

I would encourage you to underline underline again pretending to remain calm and underline a third time with all of your energy and vigor that you've been storing up that word manifest in this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God nor is he who does not love his brother this is the key to the book this is the center of the book the difference between children of God and the children of the devil and the evidence that's displayed this idea of how do you know fake professors from real professors of the faith whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God nor is he who does not love his brother the practice of righteousness is the practice of love the obeying of the commandments of God is the loving so I've given you notes to unpack this because this is the center of the book so I gave you a detailed explanation in your notes of the center of the book verse 4 whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness and sin is lawlessness sin and lawlessness here are identified with each other they are equated with each other

God's law teaches us the difference between good and evil verse 5 and you know that he was manifested to take away our sins and in him there is no sin right?

Jesus was manifest in the world he came he was incarnated in order to take away our sins our guilt for law breaking and the power of sin indwelling us and the acts of sin all of these things are to be taken away verse 6 whoever abides in him does not sin whoever sins has neither seen him nor known him if you sin that's evidence against the credibility of your profession and if you won't repent then you don't have a credible profession this is the test verse 7 little children let no one deceive you he who practices righteousness is righteous just as he is righteous in other words little children look you need to who are the ones that are sinning and who are the ones that are doing what

God commands you got to use this test don't let anybody deceive you what has happened in America is the churches are full of lots of people who are in constant and open rebellion against the commandments of God and the churches will not discipline them if there is no discipline the churches fill up with people who are false professors and all of the resources and all of the institutions get taken over by false professors and then those that teach get replaced by people who will scratch their itching ears and then you have false teaching don't be deceived verse 8 actually look at the note

I've got on verse 7 do not be deceived by false professors, false teachers or false prophets who teach against the commandments of God and or who sin without concern for the law of God and will not repent verse 8 he who sins is of the devil for the devil has sinned from the beginning for this purpose the son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil this is an argument that shows if you are sinning it shows an origin back to the first sin we talk about original sin, original sin is

Adam we talk about original sin in terms of the first man to sin and the sin that gave guilt to us all and the way in which our corrupt nature comes to us and sometimes you'll hear somebody go well the original sin was actually

Satan well sure, absolutely right the first sin was Satan's sin and so when

Adam fell he was joining under the banner of Satan a true believer will repent of sin verse 8, sinning is from the kingdom of Satan Satan's sin was the first sin of any creature so the origin of the practice is in Satan thus he who sins is serving the kingdom of Satan and he is of or that is to say from the devil

Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil such as to destroy sin, the guilt of sin the power of sin and even particular actions verse 9 whoever has been born of God does not sin for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin because he has been born of God in other words the true believer will repent of sin eventually he will not abide in sin when rebuked and as a credible and so a credible profession depends upon not continuing in sin when that sin is pointed out verse 10 in this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest remember

I told you to underline that maybe add a fourth underline just like right now in this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest, they're made known, they're displayed plainly differentiated whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God nor is he who does not love his brother good works as a fruit accompany a profession of faith and make that profession credible this is the heart of 1

John this is the point and emphasis of the book it has been repeated over and over and over again we are to know the gospel and we are to have a maturing of our faith so that we have assurance of salvation so that we have a maturing of good works and those good works go out to give the credibility to our profession it makes our profession powerful, makes us differentiable from the world it's the saltiness that makes it so that we have a distinct taste and if we lose our saltiness we're good for nothing except to be trampled on do you want to see the world made better in your lifetime and to pass on a better world to your children be salty be distinct bear fruit apply the law use it to subdue the world trample the enemies of Christ under your feet by the power of the

Holy Spirit by the application of the law Christ came to destroy the works of the devil and he subdues them under our feet pray that God would cause you to bear fruit and rejoice when he does because he will let's pray

Father we ask that you would bless the teaching through 1 John and cause us to have assurance cause us to carefully use the marks of credible profession and testing of churches and of teachers and prophecy and prophets

Father we ask that you would cause us to bear fruit that you would make us to be a joyful people who have a hope and assurance of salvation and that you would cause us to bear fruit and to give a powerful witness into the world we ask that you would cause us to overcome the wicked one to overcome the world to overcome unbelief and sin

Father we pray that you would cause us to conquer and we pray this in the name of the conqueror

Jesus Christ Amen Comments, questions, objections from the voting members and those with speaking privileges

Mr. Nye Yeah he is using believing they are not in terms of as an instrument of justification

I hope I've made it very clear that I believe in justification by faith alone. Here I don't believe this is a gospel text

I think this is a law text and he's commanding us to believe as a way of dealing with the first table of the law as a way of loving

God. Yes He tells us he issues faith as a command someplace else in John I'm trying to remember where.

You have a memory of that too? Yes Yeah, right

Yeah, so 1 John chapter 3 verse 23 and this is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his son

Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave commandment this is a law text, it's a commandment text, it's a covenant of works text he's showing and it's also a thing that you could use as a test for other people's professions right, the covenant of works requires that you keep the whole law.

You must believe everything God says you must worship him in the way he requires, you must have a proper attitude while using it, you must do it at the appointed times, right, that's the first table so when

I taught through this in the non -review I was explaining that this is a reference to believing as a requirement of law and not as the instrument of justification and it's being used here to represent the whole first table, it's being used for how you love

God, first, second, third, fourth commandments and it's put next to the love of neighbor right, so love of God, love of neighbor that's clear from the context, yeah so if you make, so this happens when people are preaching another gospel sometimes they'll tell you they'll say, well you know even

Adam had to believe and therefore believing is still required sure, but it's not enough and they'll say that faith has to have works with it and people will kind of get boggled at this because they'll go, oh,

I thought Adam just had to do works I guess he had to believe also and then they'll try to redefine living by faith and they'll say you live by faith when you have faith and do the works and so the way you live by faith is having faith and doing the works and that's how you're justified okay, that's a false gospel and so there are texts that show us we have a duty to obey and we do

Jesus Christ meritoriously believed everything he was supposed to believe and did everything he was supposed to do our faith doesn't have to be perfect for us to be justified, faith as small as a mustard seed, the smallest faith, the littlest faith that believes the gospel is a justifying faith and so as an instrument of justification a weak, imperfect small faith is the instrument of justification and so we differentiate between faith as a meritorious requirement in the law versus as an instrument in a covenant of grace

I hope that's clear thank you anything else in the comments, questions, objections?

okay now let's sing the second half of Psalm 86

Psalm 86 part 2 how great and how wondrous are you and all your works for truly you alone are

God Lord teach me your ways, I will walk in your truth oh unite my heart to fear your name oh

Lord my God, I will praise you with all my heart glorify your name evermore, for great is the mercy that you've given me, you delivered my soul out of shiel oh

God see how the proud have risen against me and assemblies of the violent men have sought after me seek to do my soul harm and have not set you before their eyes but you are

Lord are a God full of compassion you are gracious and long suffering oh plentiful are your great mercy and truth, turn to me and have mercy on me give strength to your servant save your handmaiden son show me a token of the good, that they who hate me might see it and be shamed, for you

Lord helped and comforted me how great and how wondrous are you and all your works for truly

Lord teach me your ways

I will your truth oh unite my heart to oh

Lord my God praise you with all, great is the mercy you've given to my soul out of shiel, oh

God see risen against me assemblies of violence sought after me seek to do my soul set you by of compassion you are gracious and long suffering oh plentiful turn to mercy and strength to your servant save your handmaiden son show me a token of the good, that they who hate me might see it and be shamed, for you

Lord helped and comforted me please be seated

Mr. McNeer if you could please come forward Elijah McNeer you are about to covenant which is a serious matter that calls upon the witness of God to bless the performing and the truth telling in the covenant and to curse the falsity of the oath or to curse failures in the covenant and so it is my understanding you desire a covenant at this time is that true?

Alright so I will read the covenant and I will then ask you at the end

I will say do you at the end of each question ask you that time to say I do if you agree with it

I would encourage you to say so loudly this is a public profession of faith an opportunity for you to confess your faith boldly before men now please raise your right hand do you believe all the statements and necessary inferences of the scriptures of the old and new testaments to be the rationally coherent and infallible word of God the very truth itself and the only rule for faith and life do you do you believe that the

Westminster Shorter Catechism is a faithful summary of the basic doctrines of scripture do you do you believe that the one living and true

God is a spirit who is infinite eternal and unchangeable in his being wisdom power holiness justice goodness and truth and that this one

God is three persons the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and that these three persons are one

God the same human being in agreement in all things and equal in power and glory do you do you believe that the only redeemer of God's elect is the

Lord Jesus Christ who being the eternal son of God became man and so was and continues to be

God and man in two distinct beings two distinct minds and yet one

Christ forever and that Christ the son of God became man by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul being conceived by the power of the

Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary and born of her yet without sin do you bow five do you believe that you are guilty and helpless as a sinner against God repent of your sin and believe that God by grace alone has pardoned all of your sins and accepted you as righteous in his sight only because of the righteousness of Christ imputed to you and received by belief alone do you bow six do you believe that because God is the

Lord your God and your redeemer having saved you from your sin by grace alone through faith alone in the mediatorial work of Christ alone that the only reasonable response to God's authority and mercy is to live your life as an acceptable sacrifice to God seeking to glorify him in the whole of life by knowing the truth acting according to the knowledge of the truth and spreading the knowledge of the truth all out of gratitude for the grace of God given to you do you do you promise to glorify

God by seeking the knowledge of the truth for yourself and for your household by diligently engaging in private worship and household worship both of which should be daily and should ordinarily include partaking of the scriptures prayer and the singing of psalms keeping the

Lord's day observing the appointed sacraments and attending to the call of the church to gather for the worship of God and for the government of the church do you do you promise to glorify

God by seeking to act according to the knowledge of the truth as revealed in the moral law which is the whole duty that God requires of man is summarized by the two great commandments is summarily comprehended in the ten commandments and is explained accurately in the

Westminster Shorter Catechism do you do you promise to glorify

God by seeking to spread the knowledge of the truth by engaging in and supporting evangelism and discipleship in the whole council of God providing a

Christian education for your household tithing to the church and cooperating with others in the church in order to fill the earth with the knowledge of the

Lord as the waters cover the sea do you and lastly do you promise to carefully examine the doctrine worship and government of this church according to scripture alone to determine whether these marks of the church are being kept pure and entire to submit under the government of this church in all lawful exercises of church authority and to refuse submission in all unlawful exercises of church authority to follow the biblical requirements of conflict resolution prior to separation from this body as summarized authoritatively in Matthew 18 and Acts 15 and subordinately in the constitution of the scripturalist church and to work in the church with zeal and knowledge for peace, purity and unity in the truth do you and you may lower your hand

Mr. McNeer it is my understanding that you desire to be baptized at this time, is that true?

Please stand for the word of institution for baptism the word of institution comes from Matthew 28 starting at verse 18 and Jesus came and spoke to them saying all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, go and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the

Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and lo

I am with you always even to the end of the age, amen you may be seated let's pray now for this ordinance

Father we ask that you would bless the word of institution and the word of the name of the

Trinity in this in this act of worship and the use of this water as a visible symbol, a visible word to point to the covenant we ask that you would cause this to be used by all those who are observing to be reminded of their baptisms and to improve upon them remember that they have covenanted and they are under the banner of your

Son, Father we ask that you would bless Elijah with all the realities of this symbol, we ask that you would give them to him and that you would cause this visible symbol to be united with the reality we pray all this in Christ's name, amen baptism is a sign of the covenant of grace it points to Christ the mediator and it points to the benefits of the covenant it is a replacement of circumcision as the entry ritual so now alright, let's sing now

Psalm 133 that we have another brother in arms that has sworn to work with us please stand for Psalm 133

Psalm 133 a song of a sense of David oh truly it is very good and pleasant to behold when the brethren come together and dwell in unity oh it is like the precious oil poured out upon the head which does run down from Aaron's beard even to his garments as the dew from Hermon descends upon Zion's mountain for there the

Lord his blessing gave even eternal life oh truly it is very good and pleasant to behold when the brethren come together and dwell in unity oh it is like the precious oil poured out upon the head which does run down from Aaron's beard even to his garments as the dew from Hermon descends upon Zion's mountain for there the

Lord his blessing gave even eternal life for those of you who will not be participating in the

Lord's Supper grace to you and peace in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ if you have been examined by the council and if you have examined yourself to see if you're in the faith can discern the

Lord's body are at peace with others as far as it depends upon you and are not holding on to a cherished sin then

I will invite you in just a moment after the reading of the word of institution to come to the

Lord's table the word of institution today comes from Mark 14 and as they were eating

Jesus took bread blessed and broke it and gave it to them and said take eat this is my body then he took the cup and when he had given thanks he gave it to them and they all drank from it and he said to them this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many assuredly

I say to you I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when

I drink it new in the kingdom of God and when they had sung a hymn they went out to the mount of olives again if you have been examined by the council and examined yourself