God’s Seed & the Devil’s Schemes | 1 John 3:7-8

ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church

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Let me let me go ahead and read. Let's go ahead and read the passage once again And I'll add my my drive -by commentary as I tend to do 1st

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John chapter 3 verse starting in verse 7 God's Word says little children all of us believers

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Let no one deceive you the one who does righteousness is righteous just as he

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That one is righteous The one who does sin is of the devil because the devil sins from the beginning

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The Son of God was manifested for this purpose to destroy or to loose the works of the devil

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Everyone who has been born of God does not sin because his sin his seed abides in him permanently and He cannot sin

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Continuance in because he has been born of God By the father's adoptive love as we saw earlier

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By this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifested Everyone who does not do righteousness is not of God as well as the one who does not love his brother

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You see the connection there For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning

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And this phrase is also familiar from earlier parts of the letter That we should love one another not as Cain For example who was of the evil one and slew his brother

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Abel he murdered his brother and for what reason did he slay him because his deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous

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Amen, so I've mentioned before that Biblical commentators they often disagree on how to outline this chapter in 1st

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John and Most of this letter for that matter as well Because the letter you might have noticed has no linear progression or flow it's not linear and so Many also disagree on how to properly organize it into paragraphs because it's a little challenging to see you know, we've seen how the

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Apostle jumps around back and forth a lot and This brings me to a very important public service announcement early on And this is very important for us to understand that the

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New Testament manuscripts Generally do not contain punctuation or paragraphs

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Okay, the New Testament manuscripts generally speaking do not contain

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Punctuation or paragraphs the earliest Manuscripts in fact were written in a style known as script yo continua

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It's Latin for basically continuous writing continuous Script where the text runs together without any breaks without any breaks and all uppercase letters and this is called unseal script or majuscule

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And and there are other later New Testament manuscripts that are written in minuscule lowercase form

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The so that there's both but the earliest ones are in majuscule and This is kind of a technical word in English, but in Spanish, it's more common

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And it's there's equivalence with where there's minuscule and my muscular Lowercase and uppercase so it's the same thing

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And this was done the reason that that copyists and scribes wrote this way was a lot of times to save money and space on Papyrus and parchment which could be expensive at that time so and I would really like for us to do an exercise, you know sometime when we get home and To look them up for yourself look up the

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New Testament manuscript all of the New to a lot of the New Testament manuscripts are available online and you can see them for yourself with your own eyes

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It's fascinating work from the From it's called the Center for the study of New Testament manuscripts and there's other websites to that Catalog, and they take pictures high -quality resolution pictures of the

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New Testament manuscripts I dare you to try to read them yourself and make sense of them

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Even if you actually know Greek Even if you know Greek they're hard to read

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Very it's very challenging work. It's fascinating, but it's challenging work and it's not just because of You know the handwriting they're handwritten obviously, but they're also old ancient documents

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They're they're ancient. These are these documents are hundreds from the as early as the 100s

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To later on in the medieval times and and so on. These are ancient documents.

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And so This is this is not like our nice white printed

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Bibles with the black font and the extra -large font and that's not how These manuscripts look like you would be

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I think surprised to see how challenging it is to Try to read them so that's why we really should be thankful and thank

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God for faithful Bible scholars and translators They are vital and necessary to God's people and for the life of the church

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Which is why the Lord raises men up like these throughout history the

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Bible is the center of our faith if we don't have the Bible we don't have anything and But it takes very gifted and qualified men to be able to bring the

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Bible to our time to the English language to translate it and or to any other language native language today, it takes serious hard dedicated work and You know

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God raised up men through all throughout history like Jerome and Wycliffe and Tyndale and Tyndale being the first one to translate it into English one of the first and The King James Bible translators the

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Puritans and so on so And these men Erasmus being another one who was not a he's probably not a believer but he remained a

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Roman Catholic even though he was in favor a lot of of what the Reformation was trying to cleanse the church the

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Catholic Church from but These men were brilliant men.

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They knew several languages. I think Tyndale knew like 17 languages and that's really the kind of Quali - qualifications that you need in order to do this right you need to be very well versed in ancient languages and in translation and so Contrary to what pietists and fundamentalists and Plymouth brethren and King James only a say

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We need Therefore robust Christian scholarship

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We need scholarship qualified Christian men Who can do textual criticism?

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that's the the science of collating and comparing manuscripts and To try to determine

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What the original? Text read because there's several copies and some of the copies have variants or slight disagreements between What the verses actually say?

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Now before anybody panics, it doesn't mean that they're Most of the vast majority are not what's called viable

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Meaning they don't affect the meaning of the text A lot of them are just you know, a difference in word order or things like that or spelling but Nevertheless this is very hard work and it's and it's extremely fascinating work that requires

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Qualifications to do this right to do this properly and Men like these need to study

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Not just the original biblical languages of Greek and Hebrew and and some

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Aramaic But the many other ancient and medieval Manuscript languages as well.

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It's not just those three languages. It's also Coptic Syriac Latin Ge 'ez even.

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Ge 'ez is classical Ethiopic In order to be able to translate them correctly and to compare what other translations say

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Which is what all translators essentially have done I've tried to do and so we need to be

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That it's important to be aware and appreciative of this process Just as we also need qualified Christian men who can study scripture make proper sense of scripture interpret preach teach apply and systematize scripture faithfully

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Cut it straight, right like 2nd Timothy 2 15 says handle it accurately that includes by extension translation

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And So speaking of translation, you know, the

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Jehovah's Witnesses came knocking at my door yesterday and As some of you all know they have a they have a mistranslation of the

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Bible their translation of the Bible called the New World Translation is very corrupt and It's sad because part of the reason for that is because they have an agenda.

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They have a bias They reject certain doctrines of the Bible like Jesus Christ as God but also

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Not a single one of the original committee in the of the

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New World Translation new Greek not one and So that's a problem

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If you don't know Greek, you don't know what you're doing. You don't know how to translate then you can't translate what you're what you're dealing with so And It's a the the the

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New World Translation. You can read it for yourself. It's a it's a very much It's a butchering of the original manuscripts of the

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Bible and You know he and it's sad because you see the fruit of that in their beliefs, you know

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They say things like well Jesus wasn't crucified on a cross. He was crucified on a stake.

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He wasn't he was a Basically like hung on a stake and if you see a

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Translation, I mean, uh, not translate the magazine their New World Translation What's it called the

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Watchtower track in Bible Society? they have a magazine and they show pictures of Jesus like tied up and Oh, and it's like nobody says that they're the only ones who say that And it's a lot of this is due to the fact that they have

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Clearly have agendas an Agenda that they're imposing on the Bible which is why they twist and mingle it apart and it's but if you can actually use their own

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Bible against them because even some of the the work that they try to use for example in the kingdom interlinear or even the biblical citations the references they

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Point you to passages that show that Jesus is God that Jesus is Jehovah and they don't believe that they don't believe that Jesus is

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Jehovah so And it was funny because you know, the guy was very nice he was a nice guy

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He was with a woman. I maybe his girlfriend or wife. I don't know but he was telling me, you know

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I'm not here to Change your mind or anything because I told him immediately. Oh, you're

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Jehovah's Witness. He was a yes Oh, so you don't believe Jesus is God. He's like, yeah. Yeah, we don't right and then

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He was but he was like, oh, no, I'm not I'm not we're not here to change your mind or you know We're just here to say that it's it's it's important to live according to the

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Bible, you know And we respect your beliefs and it was like, okay. Well, but if you don't just have Jesus you don't have anything

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If you don't have the son, you don't have the father also. That's what first John teaches us, right?

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So That's the sad that's one example of many of What happens when you don't know you don't have qualified men to handle the

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Word of God, excuse me the Word of God accurately Faithfully both in translation and in interpretation and in systematizing

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Deducing sound doctrine from it. So Don't ever fall for that lie for the lie of It's just me and my

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Bible right just me and my Bible and God and that's we're good. That's all we need because that is to deny history and God's providential means of grace and of providing us to scriptures because it took men several men to translate the

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Bible just to translate the Bible and Men who were persecuted by the way, a lot of these men were were executed burned because They wanted to translate the

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Bible into the language of the people It's a it's a fascinating but also blood it's a it's a blood -ridden history and And So so we can't deny the reality of what the

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Bible says and what God's History and God's providence in all of this this whole process

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It takes a village as the saying goes or rather it takes the church.

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It takes God's Church both the church historic and the church alive today

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The church triumphant in heaven and the church militant here on earth for Us to receive the full

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Council of the whole Council of God and to apply it to our time To the challenges that we face today

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It takes the work of many many faithful believers all throughout history

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To give us the blessing of good Bible translation and sound doctrinal sermons treatises systematic theologies, etc

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And that's very selfish to say as well. It's just you and your Bible It's like what about the people who don't have the

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Bible in their language? Who's going to take up the the challenge of translating it for them like William Carey did when he went to India?

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Right that that's the work of the church the work of the church is So Needs to do those to bring the

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Word of God to the whole world That's the Great Commission. Amen and these

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Faithful men like these all make it not just easier but possible for us to read understand believe appreciate and live out

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God's Word so Bear that in mind beloved. It's a very

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Important work and that's why we also use we have the blessing of being able to use the legacy standard

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Bible Which is definitely one of the best translations in English now

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With that said Recall that the best way to understand the flow of John's first letter is

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Is is to note the recurring? Patterns and themes and categories and contrasts

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That he emphasizes all throughout the letter He frequently jumps back and forth as we've been seeing even in this especially in this chapter between major subjects and doctrines in order to emphasize them and to remind us to abide in In them and what he is teaching us in that anointing of truth and Continues to draw he continues to draw out the recurring contrast

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Several of them like sin and righteousness Right sin and righteousness holiness and unrighteousness law and gospel love and disobedience

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God and the devil Christ and Antichrist right God seed and purpose and the devil seed and schemes the wicked wiles of the devil and So this this passage and this entire letter in fact

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Makes constant use of the analogies of scripture and of faith

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Because the New Testament in general the later writings later revelation makes use of all the earlier writings, especially in the

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Old Testament, right as Well as the contemporary New Testament writings that were written in around the same time

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This is known as a very important doctrine known as progressive revelation progressive revelation means that God unfolds his his words his revelation throughout history it wasn't all at once but it was throughout history over thousands of years in fact and Later revelation

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Cumulatively Cumulatively explains and accounts for earlier revelation

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Okay, that's a big $10 word there cumulatively it accumulates it

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It it cumulatively it's like a snowball it continues to Expand and explain and account for it harmonizes and makes sense of earlier

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Revelation whereas in some cases things were concealed in the Old Testament known as a biblical mystery in the

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New Testament. It's revealed Like the mystery of marriage for example

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Marriage is a picture of Christ and his love for the church, right the bride of Christ.

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So But in 1st John, it's not always explicit

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It's not always explicit Sometimes it's implied Sometimes it's assumed because the letter

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In in several cases assumes or presupposes a broader understanding of Scripture and of the faith once for all delivered to the

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Saints right so Without always giving

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Examples or explanation the key terms are not always defined.

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They're assumed But we are nevertheless expected to understand what he means

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But that's also partly why we need pastors and teachers right to help us understand the

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Bible and not not stumble in Some of these challenging passages these bookends scriptures like, you know, he who does sin is of the devil is lawless

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Right, that's we have to be able to understand that without going to extremes

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So now I want to focus more clearly on and I forgot to mention this that I know we read from verse 7 through 12

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You know, I'm I'm not going to cover the entire passage, but I wanted to read that passage to get the fuller context and on of what of what the the letter is describing here, so Turning back to verse 7 and 8.

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I want us to focus on the devil His schemes and his children

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Okay, notice the contrast here with with what what the Apostle is telling us here

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Starting in verse 7 little children Once again, it's a term of endearment for all of us believers.

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Let no one deceive you Let no Antichrist deceive you on the contrary the one who does righteousness

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Practices lives righteously by faith is righteous

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Just as that one is righteous The one who does sin is of the devil

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I'm sorry. I missed that on the contrary. I Misplaced that on the contrary on the contrary

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The one who does sin is of the devil because the devil sins from the beginning

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The Son of God was manifested for this purpose to destroy to loose the works of the devil so Note here how the one who does righteousness is righteous just as he is righteous

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Now by way of reminder, of course We understand that we do not become righteous by doing righteous things

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Which is both impossible and backwards right a good a bad tree cannot bear bad fruit and we're all born bad tree

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So you're out of luck there, right? It's a confusion of law and gospel to say that This is to be understood in light of again the analogy of Scripture the whole counsel of God as the evidence and fruit of those who are already declared righteous by faith alone

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Legally declared righteous forensically before God's courtroom by faith apart from works

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Again, the analogy of Scripture is very important. We can't ever read a verse

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By itself like false teachers often tend to do they love to rip out verses single verses and and shove their own biases and foolish

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Misinterpretations into the text we have to interpret Scripture in light of its immediate context and the entire biblical context, right

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God is not the author of confusion but of truth of peace love and sound judgment and discipline so Now that no one is justified

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Right justified That's not a word, but I just righteousified by faith

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But I'm sorry by the law before God is evident. It's evident.

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It's obvious Even though many distort this gospel truth for the righteous shall live by faith

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The just shall live by faith because his righteousness comes from another from Jesus Christ Through faith alone in Christ alone apart from works of the law

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Amen That's Galatians 3 11 and and which which is citing back to this again progressive revelation pointing back to Habakkuk 2 for the word says the righteous shall live by his faith and sadly many

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Jewish teachers Perverted this verse corrupted this verse to mean the just shall the righteous shall live by his faithfulness

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The just shall live by his faithfulness rather than by faith But this is clearly it's evident.

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It's evident That we are not Justified by anything but faith alone and this is what

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Luther Again he discovered because he would read passages like these and think

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I Can't do this. I can't live up to this because the righteousness of God is perfect and I'm anything but perfect He didn't quite understand what the righteousness of God meant and that it's given to us by faith the righteousness of God Because it is because the just shall live by faith by faith and are justified by faith

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This is what? propelled the Reformation and changed the world this very doctrine and Remember also though that the one who does sin is

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Of the devil is not saved because this refers to Sending right like we covered

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I covered last time sending doing sin as An ongoing deliberate self -willed lifestyle, it's

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Betty Patel It's a it's a hell hell hell bound lifestyle not heaven bound

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There It's not like Pilgrim's Progress right where Christian is progressing through life

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Towards the celestial city. Yes, he stumbles. Yes, he falls. Yes, he sins but he

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God always puts him on the right track towards the celestial city right to the heavenly destination and This is that the describing a lifestyle that is without repentance or confession of sin and mortification of sin without true saving faith in the biblical gospel and the sanctification that always follows

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That always follows so speak of the devil now

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Christ our Lord Gives us a sharp incisive commentary about the devil in John's gospel

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John's other writing That sheds much much light for us here in this particular passage turn with me to John 8 verse 44

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John chapter 8 verse 44 This is very important Fascinating material

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Here that is going to be somewhat of a recap and a summary of what of the series that I taught

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Not so long ago in the world of flesh and the devil but John 8 verse 44 our

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Lord Christ says you The Jews who were rejecting

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Jesus teaching at that time are of your father the devil

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The devil and you want to do the desires of your father

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Because these men these are the ones who do sin They do sin

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They desire sin. They continue in sin like first John also talks about he the devil was a murderer a

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Murderer Like who like Cain right? That's the other parallel there and first John from the beginning and Does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him

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Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature. It's who he is

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For he is a liar and the father of lies The devil is the original bad guy

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He is the original bad guy the first murderer like Cain was The devil was the first murderer in heaven and Cain was the first murderer on earth so These passages are a summation of the devil

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His schemes and his seed his followers Is you know that the angels of his ministers of that disguised himself as ministers of righteousness

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Antichrist that's another word for them and this is fascinating because as I was a you know studying and meditating on on these verses

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Something hit me and made me realize That the devil himself has his own anointing and his own incarnation he has his own version of the anointing and incarnation and so This is really fascinating because the devil's anointing stems all the way back to man's first disobedience and the fruit of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste

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Brought death into the world and all our woe with loss of Eden That is from the bard

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John Milton paradise lost That's where we see the devil's anointing out in operation

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Turn with me now to Genesis chapter 3 verse 4 In Genesis chapter 3 starting in verse 4

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Pay close attention to this passage here.

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It's really it's extremely Revealing it connects many of the dots that first John is expounding and explaining to us about the devil and Antichrist and all of that stuff

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God's Word says and the serpent the devil in other words said to the woman you surely will not die

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For God knows that in the day you eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil your eyes will be opened

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Opened and you will be like God Your eyes will be opened and you're in other words.

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Your understanding will be open Knowing Good and evil.

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Okay note that knowing good and evil Then the woman saw that Eve saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was

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Desirable to make one wise wise So she took from its fruit and ate and she gave also to her husband with her and he ate and And listen and the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked

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They knew and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings

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So this is Wow this is the false anointing of the devil it is an anointing of lies and disobedience of Sin and shame or guilt.

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That's the false anointing. It's false knowledge It's knowledge falsely so -called like the

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New Testament says false

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It's a it's the exact foil or contrast to Christ and the

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Spirit's anointing the Holy One's anointing of the truth Right that first John talks about so The devil's anointing is the reason is the first domino why as to why everyone born in Adam is born guilty of sin and Allah breaking sinner

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Because of the devil's false anointing of lies But not only that Not only that similarly the devil

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Also has a false incarnation of Christ and First John is the primary expounder of this false incarnation and You might you might hint at what it is

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It is none other than the Antichrist the

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Antichrist this is the false

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Christ Instead of Christ in the place of Christ against Christ He is in the stead of Christ in order to oppose the real

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Christ The false head of the church right and the reap this is because we know that The Antichrist operates in the world and Tries to this

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The devil disguises himself. He's a counterfeiter. He disguises himself as an angel of light and so one of his main agents is the

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Antichrist that disguises himself as Christ on earth the vicar of Christ God on earth

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And Sort of it's a physical embodiment of really of the devil of the devil and Just like Christ the son of God the second person of the of the

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Trinity became flesh and Dwelt among us right this is this is fascinating parallels here.

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So He is the Antichrist is or rather they are they are

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Like the physical incarnation of the devil the man of sin or of lawlessness the man of lawlessness and sin remember

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What sin is? Sin is lawlessness It is that the

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Antichrist is that succession of men on the earth embodied primarily in the

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Roman papacy Okay, the Popes as our confession says the 1689

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Baptist Confession the Lord Jesus Christ is the head of the church

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The only head in him is vested by the appointment of the father in a supreme and sovereign manner all authority for the calling institution order and government of the church

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The Pope of Rome cannot in any sense Be the head of the church, but he is the

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Antichrist that man of lawlessness that son of destruction

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Who exalts himself in the church against Christ and all that is called

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God? Whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of his coming Okay, this is the false

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Incarnation false incarnation and You know because and demons that this is why also demons want to they want bodies.

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They always want to get into human bodies They they they were condemned and judged in the flood and so they are disembodied spirits now who look for bodies and That is another embodiment of the devil schemes the primary one in a sense the the the

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Popes of Rome it is the Antichrist that the Bible warns about and furthermore furthermore the many

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Antichrists that have appeared in that John the Apostle John warns us against are the devil's children right and ministers

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You know, we just like we are the children of God the devil has his own children just like Jesus told the

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Jews who rejected him your father is a devil and so the many

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Antichrists There is the one Antichrist the succession of men in the papacy, but there are also many

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Antichrists and The One being the office prime in other words, but there are many and They are the devil's children and likewise also

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Every spirit of Antichrist that does not confess

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Jesus is not from God is Not from God like 1st.

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John 4 3 says just like just like the Jehovah's Witnesses They are sons of Arius the heretic

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Arius who denied that Jesus was God there was a time when the

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Sun was not was their little jingle and It's heresy if you don't have

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Christ, you don't have anything you're lost so This is the spirit of this is a false.

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It is a false Holy Spirit. It's an unholy spirit, right? That's the false spirit of Antichrist and The Apostle Peter preached a very similar message to Cornelius and His fellow

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Gentiles that reflects a lot of what the Apostle John is writing to us here

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Once again analogy of Scripture we see how Scripture correlates with itself.

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It's always correlating and we see how The devil and his schemes are being exposed his works that are being destroyed by Christ and this false wisdom

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Turn with me to Acts chapter 10 verse 34 Acts chapter 10

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We'll start in verse 34, this is a very very nice summary of Much much of the principal parts of the whole

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Council of God that the Apostle Peter Preaches here

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God's Word says and opening his mouth Peter said

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I most truly comprehend now that God is not one to show parts partiality

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He is the just judge after all right? but in every

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Nation the one who fears him and what does righteousness?

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Does righteousness just like first John says is welcome to him as? For the word which he sent to the sons of Israel to the

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Jews Proclaiming the good news of peace through Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all

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You yourselves know The thing which happened throughout all

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Judea Starting from Galilee after the baptism which John the Baptist proclaimed you know of Jesus of Nazareth how

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God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power and How he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by none other than the devil

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He destroyed the works of the devil Amen For God was with him

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Unlike the devil and we are witnesses of all the things he did

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Both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put him to death by hanging him on a tree

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God raised him up on the third day and granted that he appear not to all the people but to witnesses

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Who were chosen beforehand by God? chosen beforehand by God's Election that is to us who ate and drank with him after he arose from the dead

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And he commanded us to preach to the people and solemnly to bear witness that this is the one that one who has been designated by God as judge of the living and the dead of Him all the prophets bear witness that through his name everyone who believes in him

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Receives the forgiveness of sins Amen This is precisely much of what first John tells us

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Very much in line with the message in first John So how then as we

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Wrap up here. How then? Shall we deal with this sinning?

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Imposterous copycat devil and his minions who tempt us to sin Because it says he who does sin is of the devil, right?

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So how do we avoid that? And have no fear beloved for Jesus Christ the righteous is here

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Just like Peter preached just like the Apostles preached. This is the gut. This is the gospel promise

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Excuse me the end of verse 8 and 1st

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John chapter 3 verse 8 points us to the gospel saturated promises of glorious victory and encouragement that overcomes the world the flesh the devil himself

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If you see the second half of verse 8 in 1st

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John chapter 3 the Son of God was manifested incarnated truly for this purpose to destroy to loose all the false works and schemes and wiles of the devil

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All those devices all of them It's very interesting because that word destroy in the

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Greek is loose a loose a it's it's a literal Sort of a carryover from the word that we have in English to loose.

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It literally means to loose or to loosen to break free and I love how our good friend

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And Gordon Clark Puts this in his commentary.

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He says if we if now we dare to be pleasantly pictorial

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We may imagine that the devil has tied us into knots And Christ has come to untie them all of them all of them

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Still pictorial we can say that we are bound by sin in bondage to sin and That Christ strikes off our fetters all our shackles and chains and bonds

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Amen, of course Christ had a complex of purposes.

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He had many purposes but This one this one purpose affects us most directly most directly

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Not just to take away sins in other words did Christ appear but to destroy

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To loose the works of the devil that were on us and against us

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Christ is not just our law keeper He is not just our sin bearer who aches who takes away our sins

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But also our curse breaker our enemy destroyer

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Our enemy destroyer Amen Turn with me to Romans chapter 16 verse 19.

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This is one of my favorite verses in all of Scripture From one of my favorite letters in God's Word This is an amazing amazing word from God in Romans 16 verse 19 and It's amazing how

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God's Word is is is so Comprehensive and consistent and harmonious

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When you rightly Understand and apply it so beloved

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Romans 16 verse 19 the Apostle Paul says under the guidance and Breathed out spirit inspired scripture

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Expired rather For the report of your obedience

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Your obedience has reached to all Therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in What is good and innocent in what is evil?

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Abide in him in other words in Christ and the God of peace will soon crush

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Satan completely under your feet The grace of our

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Lord Jesus be with you all Amen That I love that verse the

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God of peace the God of peace Will crush Satan under your feet shortly completely and it's fascinating how we often think of peace of of as Not fighting or not war as the opposite of war, right?

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Peace is like when there's no war But in order to have true peace

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You have to make war and destroy the enemy who is against peace

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The devil hates peace He is chaos. He is a he is the the the he hates

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God and his children He hates us and so we cannot have true peace in this life

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Unless until I mean we have the peace of God already, of course

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But the devil will always continue to he continues to assault us along with the world in the flesh

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In order to have true peace The God of peace gives us this true peace this external objective peace

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Not on a false, it's not a false hope that is merely internal or subjective

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That's not based on reality But based on God's promises and providence

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He is going to completely crush the devil under our feet under our feet

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Because he exalts us as his adopted children as kings and queens in God's kingdom so then beloved this fascinating gospel promise

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And and the rest of the counsel of God that we've we've we went through today

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Helps us to remind us to abide in the truths that we must first know ourselves and our sin truly

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We must see ourselves as the wretched sinners That we truly are apart from grace alone

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Like the beautiful hymn that we sing Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretched sinner like me

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We must know God truly and What he has truly done for us

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Personally and in history through his means his providence his perfect work and Christ perfect life

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Christ perfect gospel that saves us that alone saves us and God's people said amen beloved let's go ahead and now bow our heads with a word of Gratuitous prayer

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Our precious gracious Heavenly Father we thank you so much Lord for who you are the

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God of truth the Lord of truth and who has given us Who has given us everything

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Lord your precious Son your only begotten Son to die on the cross for our sins

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To live that perfect righteous life in active obedience and suffer the full punishment the full wrath

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That we deserve your wrath Lord that we deserve And bore our sins on the cross that we might be fully

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Finally pardoned and forgiven once for all Lord. We thank you so much for these for this these promises help us

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Lord to believe and apply and reflect these promises these law this law and gospel that you so plainly and Powerfully lay have laid before us today in your word father we ask that you help us to grasp these things truly to Remain and abide in the anointing which you have given us by your spirit and your means by the truth

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Lord Knowing that all of these things are Hand in hand they go hand in hand everything from the

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Your law to righteousness to obedience to truth to love

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Everything that you are and that reflects you Lord Reflect that accordingly in us as you renew us in your spirit to both live on to righteousness

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More and more every day and die unto sin and put it to death more and more each and every day

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And we ask these things in Jesus precious all -powerful name and your precious promise that will crush the devil

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Before and under our feet shortly. Amen Thank you for listening to the sermons of thorn crown covenant

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Baptist Church Where the Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety has applied to all of faith and life

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We strive to be biblical reformed historic confessional loving discerning

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

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

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