Know Your Enemy: The World | 1 John 2:15-17

ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church

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So back on the previous Lord's Day, I had preached a sermon on contrasting darkness with gospel indicatives and I had quoted something from our good friend

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William Perkins. He is the the Puritan who wrote the art of prophesying that I want us to revisit for a little bit.

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I want to quote it in full to get the context of what what I'm trying to get us to see.

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So he says in that book, application is the skill by which the doctrine which has been properly drawn from Scripture is handled in ways which are appropriate to the circumstances of the place and time of the people in the congregation.

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This is the biblical approach to exposition and to that a hearty amen to that.

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We fully totally 100 % agree. The basic principle in application and that is of course of applying

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Scripture to our lives like he just said is to know whether a passage is a statement of the law or of the gospel.

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For when the word is preached the law and the gospel operate differently.

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The law exposes the disease of sin and as a side effect stimulates and stirs it stirs it up but it provides no remedy for it.

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However, the gospel not only teaches us what is to be done, it also has the power of the

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Holy Spirit joined to it. When we are regenerated by him we receive the strength we need both to believe the gospel and to do what it commands.

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The law is therefore first in the order of teaching then comes the gospel.

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So I had read this quote last week. I'd also read it when

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I preached on the long gospel and I kind of missed something and I wanted to see if we could catch this and just be aware of it.

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So I want us to think carefully about what I just read and to see if there's anything wrong with what

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I just read and specifically I'm referring to this last almost the second the last sentence here when he says when we are regenerated by him we receive the strength we need both to believe the gospel and to do what it commands.

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Okay so think carefully about that. Now to kind of help us sort of lead into the point that I'm that I'm getting at I want to use lordship salvation to heighten this contrast.

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So John MacArthur in his book called the gospel according to the

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Apostles which is the one he wrote after the gospel according to Jesus. He claims this what is the gospel after all but a call to repentance.

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So he's saying the gospel is a call for us to repent. In other words it the gospel demands.

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What does demand mean? Commands right imperative that sinners make a change to stop going one way to turn around and to turn around and go the other.

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He also claims that the gospel that Jesus proclaimed was a call to discipleship.

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A call to follow him in submissive obedience not just to plead to make a decision or pray a prayer.

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So I want to be absolutely unmistakably and confusedly clear about this.

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The gospel does not command. The gospel is not a command.

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That's what I just went over last week right when we talked about indicatives versus imperatives and the gospel is one the indicative and the law is the other the imperative the command.

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So the two are distinct and not to be confused. The gospel is what

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God accomplished for us and promises us in Christ already because it was finished on the cross.

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It's what God did not what we must do. The gospel is what

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God did for us not what we must do for God or in response to God.

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It is not what God demands of us that is the law. The law demands amen.

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The gospel is indicative not imperative not a command.

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The law is imperative the law commands. The gospel is one thing okay the gospel is one thing that is promise that is indicative.

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The command to believe it is another thing. They are not the same thing okay.

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You cannot confuse the gospel with the command to believe to repent and believe the gospel.

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They are separate. They are distinct. It is very important to maintain a proper distinction between law and gospel and this is serious law gospel confusion on the part especially of John MacArthur.

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The law commands not the gospel. So going back to what

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I read from Perkins when he says that we receive the strength we need both to believe the gospel and to do what it commands.

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He's talking about what the gospel commands. There's the problem right?

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The gospel does not command. So a better way to phrase that or to correct that would be to say to believe the gospel and to do what the law commands.

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So the Spirit of God empowers us both to believe it that the gospel and to obey what the law commands.

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The law. That's what he should have said. That's how we maintain a law gospel distinction properly.

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Now sometimes authors use the word gospel to refer to the

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New Testament in general. You know that can sometimes is the case. I don't think that's the case here with Perkins.

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I read I try to read the chapter and it just didn't seem it just seemed like an oversight basically.

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It just seemed like it's something that he missed. Overall however Perkins does a very good masterful job of handling law and gospel distinction.

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It's still an excellent book and I was still hearty heartily recommend it to all of you. But but it's just we have to be very careful how easy it is to confuse the two sometimes.

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So this is also a healthy reminder for all of us all of us to examine all things right.

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To examine all things and to hold fast to what is good and to always be discerning. Always be discerning.

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Okay so I want to now recap from the the text that I preached on last time.

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So I mentioned that in verse 11 of 1st John chapter 2. John warned us about the consuming darkness of hypocrisy that blinds the eyes.

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And then he makes a sharp transition to shower his audience of all spiritual ages no matter how young or how old you are in the faith with gospel saturated indicatives, promises, assurances.

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They are not imperatives. So let's turn to 1st John chapter 2 verse 12 to go ahead and recap that context and then we can move on to the the text that we are dealing with today.

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So in 1st John chapter 2 verse 12 we read,

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I am writing to you little children because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake.

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I am writing to you fathers because you know him who is from the beginning already it's indicative.

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I am writing to you young men because you have overcome the evil one already. I write to you children because you know the father already.

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I write to you fathers because you already know him who is from the beginning. I write to you young men because you are strong you are strong and the

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Word of God abides in you already and you have overcome the evil one already.

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Now so that's an awesome collection there of gospel indicatives.

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Now in today's passage John is going to make yet another sharp transition back over to the dark side.

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So we're back in the dark side and let's see what he has to say now starting in verse 15.

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In verse 15 we read, do not love the world or the things in the world.

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If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the

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Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

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And I gotta say this because for years now I have been wanting

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I've had a desire to preach and teach on this topic of knowing your enemy and so I'm super excited about about preaching this getting the chance to preach this and it's just amazing how the

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Lord works providentially and has been working in our church unquestionably working in our church and this is just one of many examples but without even intending to the opportunity to do this actually turned up in the very first book

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I just decided to preach on so it's kind of it just kind of amazes me how it all works together it all kind of coincides in God's providence and starting with this very passage so this is actually technically needs to be a three -part series it's not just one it's three and why why why would

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I say that well think let's think about this why what why why is there three things that should be addressed here principally as Christians what is our greatest enemy or enemies plural think carefully through this this is where we have to really know what we're dealing with it is the answer is basically the call it's in churches free it's been known as the unholy

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Trinity the unholy Trinity Trinity of course means three this phrase has traveled through many roads in the history of the professing church both

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Protestant and Catholic and Thomas Aquinas for example you know what

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I'm sorry I over I didn't even say what it was so really the title of the full series should be or will be know your enemy the world the flesh the devil okay those three things make up the unholy

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Trinity the three principal enemies of the Christian and that's not to say it's the only enemy it's not there's always of course people who oppose the gospel and oppose us and a lot of times it's because the devil is the one working in them but these are the three principal enemies that we have to deal with as Christians so Thomas Aquinas for example who was a medieval

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Roman Catholic monk and in theologian who formalized the false teaching of transubstantiation by using

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Aristotle mmm States in his famous book called the summa theologica which means it's

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Latin for the sum of theology this is what he says just as man is tempted by the flesh so too is he tempted by the world and by the devil so and I just want to give a caveat here because I looked at the

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Wikipedia entry on this and it only has quotes by papists and Romanists so it has nothing by Protestants which is kind of a shame because the

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Protestants have no they make full use of the term and fully address this issue of the world the flesh and the devil and we're gonna see that and correct that shortly but but there's a there's a big public service announcements that I want to make here now

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I want us to be very very careful with a popular Protestant fad that's good that's making its rounds throughout the media and and Christian media and all this stuff and being pushed heavily by some reform

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Baptists people who are in our camp and use our confession the same confession who are actively promoting

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Thomas Aquinas's view of God and making it a test of orthodoxy meaning if you don't believe it or agree with Aquinas you're wrong you like you're basically committing heresy but but I just find it incredibly ironic how

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Aquinas warns us against the world's temptations and yet he fervently embraced and imbibed the worldly secular philosophy of Aristotle to make a mess of his entire theology

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I mean that Aristotle ruined him sadly and it ruined the big part of the

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Catholic Church as well not to say that he was the only cause of it but it just made things worse and Aquinas's view of God is utter illogical nonsense which claims that all of God's attributes are identical that they are indistinguishable and the same you think think about this folks like any logical person like what what in other words

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God's wrath and his love are identical they're the same they cannot really be distinguished because that would violate his simplicity according to this view that's why they're saying this and some reform

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Baptists are eating this nonsense up and it is a utter shame it is just makes no sense the doctrine of divine simplicity which we do hold to just means that God is without body parts or passions okay that's what that's from our confession in chapter 2 of the

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London Baptist Confession it does not mean however that we cannot distinguish his divine attributes that's absurd we not only can but should and must distinguish his attributes because does does the

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Bible distinguish them does the Bible say God has love and God has wrath and it looks obviously very different how it manifests and obviously he has different attributes

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God is he has different attributes that make up who he is so I don't have time to delve on this it's a very there's a lot that goes into this but I did want to mention it here because it is really becoming unfortunately more popular and we can talk more about it afterwards if you have questions or you want to know more about it but at any rate the like I mentioned before the the

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Protestant tradition does in fact address the world the flesh and the devil in depth and we would do well to study and study and absorb what they have to say so I'll cite a few examples in the second

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Helvetica confession chapter 22 20 chapter 20 excuse me of holy baptism it says by baptism we are separated from the world and consecrated to God in baptism we confess our faith and pledge obedience to God we are enrolled into the

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Holy Army of Christ to fight against the world the flesh and the devil amen to that that's just amen well said now there's the there's also the

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Orthodox Catechism which is a Reformed Baptist version of the Heidelberg Catechism it's actually the

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Catechism that we're reciting every Sunday question 148 says what does the sixth request of the

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Lord's Prayer mean the answer is and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one means by ourselves we are too weak to hold our own even for a moment and our sworn enemies guess who they are the world the devil the world in our own flesh never stop attacking us and so Lord uphold us and make us strong with the strength of your

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Holy Spirit so that we may not go down to defeat in this spiritual struggle but may firmly resist our enemies until we finally win with the complete victory amen to that as well and then there's also one more word here an awesome word of sound doctrine and encouragement from our

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Presbyterian brother Charles Hodge in a systematic theology this is really good stuff we are not to overlook he says or undervalue the constant exercise of the kingly office of Christ so Christ has three offices principally he has a prophetic office the priestly office and the kingly office so he's talking about the kingly one he not only reigns over his people but he subdues them to himself rules and defends them and restrains and conquers all his and their our enemies these enemies are both inward and outward both seen and unseen they are guess who the world the flesh the devil the strength of the strength of the believer and contending with these enemies is not his own he is strong only in the

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Lord and in the power of his might the weapons both offensive and defensive are supplied by him and the disposition and the skill to use them are his gifts to be sought by praying without ceasing and to that I would add the means of grace the

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Lord's Supper studying preaching all of those things help us he is an ever -present helper he's our advocate our

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Pericles whenever the Christian feels his weakness either in resisting temptation or in the discharge of his duty he looks to Christ and he seeks aid from him and all who seek find amen all who seek fine so that was really well stated

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I thought and just a tremendous encouragement for us to consider regarding what we're dealing with as believers as all of all of us as believers have to have to deal with now as for scripture one passage in particular describes for us all three enemies it's an

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Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 2 3 if we turn if we can turn there to discover what it says

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Ephesians chapter 2 starting in verse 1 so Ephesians chapter 2 in verse 1 we read and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked he's talking to believers following the course of this world following the prince of the power of the air who is that the devil the same spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind amen so notice to notice to let's go back to first John now

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John discusses our three enemies through all throughout his letter so which is why again it is ideal to preach a series on knowing your enemy by preaching through first John and I want to preface this as well by saying that you we are in a war as Christians we are in a war we must know the enemy we cannot be confused about who the enemy is we must know the enemy if you don't know your enemy you are going to lose the battle period if you do not know and understand your enemy like the back of your hand you are going to lose you are going to suffer loss and you are going to you you will sin you will fall into temptation you will fall into sin you will fall in great danger death all of that so we must know our enemy we are not ignorant of Satan's devices like Corinthian says amen so in 1st

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John chapter 2 verse 15 the first the first verse here in our text today it says do not love the world right do not love the world or the things in the world so it's comprehensive don't love the world or anything in it and then he continues in verse 16 for all that is in the world the desires of the flesh the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the father but it's from the world notice notice what he's doing notice what he's connecting okay he's connecting dots for us okay and verse 14 the previous passage that I preached on he says

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I write to you young men because you are strong in the Word of God abides in you and you have overcome who the evil one the evil one the devil amen later on and later on John also warns against Antichrist in verse 18 in chapter 4 and in chapter 3

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John explicitly refers to the devil in chapter 3 verse 8 we read whoever makes the practice of sinning is of the devil for the devil has been sinning from the beginning the reason the

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God the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil verse 10 says by this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil one or the other whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God nor is the one who does not love his brother and of course remembering what

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Perkins said that we who believe the gospel receive power from God to obey

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God's law it's not by our own strength or efforts so but notice notice what

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John did he's connecting these three things for us he is connecting the world the flesh the devil all of these operate together okay we're gonna we're gonna pursue that a little bit more they are all conspiring together but before we go further first we need to do something very important like I always say we must define the terms biblically and consistently always always what is the world what does it mean what does world mean now this this is kind of a trick question okay because the word world it actually depends the answer is that it depends on the context right the word world has several different meanings in Scripture depending on the context we need to define the world carefully in light of its immediate context and of the context of the entire

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Bible as a systematic doctrinal whole this goes back to the analogies of Scripture and of faith we need to exercise these principles to make proper sense of the world because the word world is a very controversial term especially in Arminianism versus Calvinism and on all of those things a lot of times that's a failure to interpret the word world accurately because we're not taking into account either or both of those contexts okay the word world can mean at least

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I've heard like 16 different things sometimes so we have to be very careful with that even it through and this is throughout the

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New Testament but even within just the first the letter of 1st John there's several different meanings in 1st

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John alone and some of the meanings are exact opposites including in John's letter so the word world in Greek is

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Cosmo Cosmos cosmos right cosmology even cosmetics that also comes from the same word order system it's like it's like that's what it suggests we've previously come across the cosmos the the cosmos in 1st

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John and specifically in 1st John chapter 2 verse 2 where he says and he that same

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Jesus is the propitiation for our sins the atoning sacrifice that holds back the wrath of God that would otherwise be directed at us because of our sinful nature our worldliness our lifestyle and not for hours alone but also for the sins of the whole world that what does this mean what does the world the whole world mean here it means the sins of all believers throughout the whole world

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Jesus Christ death his atonement is the full satisfaction of God's justice the full redemption the full propitiation of God's wrath for the sins of not just his immediate audience of mostly local

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Jewish believers but of all believers from every tribe every tongue every nation the whole world of believers but it's like it's like the jacket right that's one of my favorite jackets members only it's believers only it only applies to believers so I encourage you to listen to the sermon that I preached in that verse the power and extent of Christ's death if you want to dig more into that so we cannot simply define words superficially or with an overriding bias as is clear from John's diverse use of the word cosmos just like in 1st

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John 519 where we read we know that we are from God and the whole world the whole world lies in the power of the evil one there we see again the devil the whole world lies in the so believers lie in the power of the evil one

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I thought the the gospel and the cross broke the power of the the devil and of sin over us and that's because the word world here means something else it means something more closely to what we're dealing with in verse 15 in chapter 2 verse 15 so public service announcement here's another one speaking of defining our terms carefully let's dispel a

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Greek myth about love and that's a that's an intended pun there you'll see why given that Valentine's Day just passed and our text today also deals with love right so you may have heard that Greek has three major words for there's a lot of threes today three major words that for love some claim that eros ero it our refers to sexual or sensual love and by the way eros is he's actually the false

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Greek God of love lust desire and sex and his Roman counterpart is

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Cupid so that's eros now Phileo is like Philadelphia right

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Philadelphia means love of the brethren love of the brothers supposedly refers to love of friendship it's a friendship type of love and then

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I got and then there's the third one the agape right agape or agapao supposedly refers to divine love it's divine love so God's God's love for man or man's love for God and but these definitions are basically totally misleading they're a myth they're a myth so it's right if you heard this you might have heard this it was kind of popular and it's just it's not right it's totally wrong for one

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Gordon Clark who was a Greek scholar explains that in the New Testament Phileo and agapao

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Phileo and agape are indistinguishable in meaning so the

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New Testament uses the terms synonymously they are used the same way in the same sense and in the

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Old Testament Septuagint agape sometimes refers to perverted loves so not not just divine love or spiritual love or you know pietistic love pious love but also refers to perverted sinful lust even incestuous love such as when

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Amnon incestuously raped his sister Tamar both of whom were offspring of King David if you recall that episode the word there in the

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Septuagint is a gap a sin it's agape that's some love right

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I mean it's not it just doesn't work and back in 1st John 2 15 the same word is used agape for both love of the world and love of the father so in verse 15 it says do not love agape the world or the things in the world if anyone loves agape the world the love agape of the father is not in him so case closed that should be settled now let's get back to the finding the word world it's just important to make sure that we understand these terms correctly what the

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John describes actually describes the word the world what is in it and what he means by it in our text today let's reread 1st

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John 2 15 through 17 with some amplification from the

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Amplified Bible so verse 15 says do not love the world of sin that opposes

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God and his precepts nor the things that are 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 and sensual craving of the flesh and the lust and longing of the eyes and the boastful pride of life pretentious confidence in one's resources or in the stability of earthly things these do not come from the father but are from the world the world is passing away and with its lust with its lusts the shameful pursuits of ungodly longings or desires but the one who does the will of God and carries out his purposes lives forever okay so now let's let's use this what we've learned so far to establish a concrete definition of what

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John means by the world here one obvious observation is that the love of the world and the love for God are mutually exclusive loves they are incompatible right you cannot love one and the other at the same time you cannot do it you either love one or you hate the other or you

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I forgot how Jesus said it you love the one you hate the other or you will submit to the one and despise the other you can't do both can't have it both ways just like faith and works faith and works are mutually exclusive categories they are not the same they must be kept distinct and this is part of what's important of keeping right improper dividing the word like like Paul says so Gordon Clark has a very clear concise no -nonsense definition it's probably my favorite one he says the world here means unregenerate civilization plain and simple unregenerate ungodly unbelieving society that's what it is it's society as a whole the unbelieving society as a whole now very useful now

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Noah Webster's 1828 dictionary also has over 22 definitions of the word world but here are some of the relevant ones for us today number six is a secular life by the world we sometimes understand the things of this world its pleasures and interests a great part of mankind are more anxious to enjoy the world than to secure divine favor there you see the contrast again there's the world versus divine favor you can't have both ways number 19 is the carnal state or corruption of the earth as the present evil world the course of this world like Galatians 1 4 which says who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age and like we read in Ephesians 2 in Ephesians 2 which says and you were dead in the trespass trespasses and sins in which you walk once walked following the course of this world so number 20 is the ungodly part of the world so like when

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Jesus said I pray not for the world but for them that thou has given me right that's that members only thing again right he's not

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I'm not talking about the world about unbelievers I'm talking about believers the elect the people you have given me to save challenge question now one now what that we know what the world is who governs or rules this evil world who governs or rules this evil world now think carefully about this think carefully about this this is a kind of a trick question because ultimately

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God is in charge and in control of everything including this evil world amen so we can't lose sight of who's really in control

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Isaiah 45 verse 5 to 7 says I am the Lord and there is no one else there is no

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God except me I will embrace and arm you though you have not known me that people may know from the rising to the setting of the

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Sun the world over that there is no one except me I am the

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Lord and there is no other the one forming light and creating darkness causing peace and creating disaster

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I am the Lord who does all these things all of them now we have an awesome

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God do we not because God is still in control of the world even the present evil world however however this is why it's a sort of a trick question we have to make sure we're putting the pieces together

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God also uses the devil and allows him to control the world like first John 519 says that we just read earlier we know that we are from God in the whole world lies in the power of the evil one lies in the power of the evil one 2nd

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Corinthians 4 4 says in their case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers darkness to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God so now that we're starting to get a big picture of all of these things in other words or maybe more what we want to get out of this is our three enemies the unholy

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Trinity of the world the flesh and devil our allies they are allies that conspire to steal kill and destroy us because who rules the world and in immediate sense the devil how does the world and the flat and the how does the world and the and the devil infiltrate the believer it's through the flesh so all of these things conspire against us now this next section

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I thought was the world illustrated I thought that was clever like sports illustrated but so what what does the world and all that is in the world or worldliness look like what does it look like and some of the best illustrations of the world in the sense that John is referring to here specifically come from our other good friend

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John Bunyan from his classic allegory the Pilgrim's Progress by the way the full book of the title is actually the

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Pilgrim's Progress from this world to that which is to come now allow me to introduce to you many of you might be familiar with this and if you're not

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I highly recommend that you read the book and check out the the recent movie that came out

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Vanity Fair Vanity Fair and as I read this ask yourself if it sounds familiar to you okay just just to see if it sounds familiar so Christian and faithful presently saw a town before them and the name of the town is vanity and at the town there is a fair kept called

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Vanity Fair it's like a carnival it is kept all the year long it beareth the name of Vanity Fair because the town where it is kept is lighter than vanity

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Psalm 62 9 and also because all that all that all that is there sold all that is there sold all that is there sold sorry or that cometh hit thither is vanity as is the saying of the wise all that cometh is vanity

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Ecclesiastes 11 8 this this fair this carnival is no new erected business but a thing of ancient standing

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I will show you the original of it almost 5 ,000 years ago there were pilgrims walking to the celestial city as these two honest persons are talking about Christian and faithful and Beelzebub Apollyon and Legion with their companions who is he talking about the devil right perceiving by the path that the pilgrims made that their way to the city lay through this town of vanity they contrived they conspired here to set up a fair a fair wherein should be sold all sorts of vanity and that it should last that it should last all the year long therefore at this fair are all such merchants

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I sold as houses lands trades places honors performance titles countries kingdoms lusts pleasures and delights of all sorts as harlots prostitutes wives husbands children masters servants lives blood bodies souls silver gold pearls precious stones and whatnot and moreover at this fair there is at all times to be seen jugglings cheats games plays fools apes knaves and rogues and that of every kind here to be seen too and that for nothing thefts murders adulteries false swears and that of a blood -red color but as in other fairs some one commodity is the chief of all the fair this this this blew me away when

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I reread this I was like I really it blew me away so the wares of Rome though the wrong

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Rome the Roman Catholic Church and her merchandise is greatly promoted in this fair now is this an accurate description of what's going on today or what it is absolutely everywhere you see the chaos this the law and order breaking down in cities all over the country

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Democrats tearing the nation apart bringing us to its to utter destruction because they're having they're too busy having all this fun of Vanity Fair and and notice

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I was trying to accentuate the not the intentionality of the devil planning

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Vanity Fair literally in the way of Christians as a deliberate stumbling block that's what the devil does right he walks around like a lowering line seeking who he can devour he's trying to lay traps for you he's trying to ensnare you and so also fascinating how he mentions the

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Church of Rome as the centerpiece of Vanity Fair and it's amazingly accurate because the

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Church of Rome is behind a lot of the utter destruction and vanity that you see everywhere in the world who's pushing immigration illegal immigration and illegal immigrants

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Rome the Pope who's pushing ungodly ways of salvation and biblical ways of salvation

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Rome who's promoting pedophilia and pederasty and all this disgusting stuff with the priest and stuff that's

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Vanity Fair that is Vanity Fair right there very revealing stuff so make no mistake we are surrounded by the world in this dark and evil sense it is everywhere all around us we must be aware of it and guard ourselves against it when you go out when you turn on the

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TV to most channels most stuff you listen to is is worldly it's worldly either implicitly or explicitly it's worldly the

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Democratic Party my god help us is one of the best examples of what the world is and does just like the

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Church of Rome which is everything literally if you read the

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Democratic platform go to the website read their Democratic platform position statements of what they believe everything they hold to is in direct contradiction to the

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Word of God that is the world folks that is the world and everything that God hates despises and abhors in the word another word to describe the world is darkness it's darkness that's what everything that John has been teaching us and the rest of the scriptures what they mean by darkness and you know like a really important passage regarding this for example is in Ephesians 612 okay in Ephesians 612

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Paul says for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the cosmic powers cause world worldly powers world rulers worldly rulers over this present darkness this present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil and the heavenly places that word is a very interesting word for cosmic powers it's

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Cosmo Cosmo Kraton Cosmo Kraton Cosmo and Kraton like Democrat Kraton means ruler cosmic ruler or world ruler so and while this passage in John's letter so now remember recall now the passage in 1st

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John 2 15 this passage John is preemptively warning us right he's he's saying hey watch out and do not love the world he's warning us to not love the world in the first place but if you go to James 4 chapter 4 there's a different scenario playing out there's a very different scenario playing out on the other hand

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James 4 4 is a fierce rebuke to compromise hypocrites in the church where he says you adulterous people do you not know do you not know didn't

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John tell you didn't John warn you that friendship with the world is enmity with God animosity with God opposition with God therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world and love the world makes himself an enemy of God much like mr.

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worldly wise men does in pilgrims progress another character you want to avoid so this this is so important to keep this is something we deal with daily we have to deal with this biblically daily now this leads to the question right how can we avoid falling into the snares of this evil world and not fall under the rebuke of James 4 4 we don't want to end up we don't want to end up there none of us want to end up there how then should we fight the world this is what

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John has been teaching us in his letter all throughout we fight the world in a positive and negative sense we can answer this question in fact in a single word one word if you think about it carefully one word sanctification sanctification which is the work of God's free grace whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin negative and live unto righteousness positive okay that's from the that's from the

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Baptist Catechism we fight the darkness of the world with the sanctifying light of the truth

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God's Word the primary means of our sanctification our growth in holiness and putting sin to death more and more

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God also uses certain works some of our own efforts or in the or in the words of the

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Reformed Catechisms are purposing and endeavoring constantly to walk with him in all the ways of new obedience such as the such as the church the means of grace and spiritual discipline such as prayer

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Bible reading and study biblical preaching all of those things church discipline as secondary means of sanctification because they are channels by which we receive the primary means the

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Word of God so this is why God commands us to exercise ourselves unto godliness unto sanctification now to add a few more words based on John's letter we not only fight the world but overcome it in our regeneration and our faith in addition to our sanctification so 1st

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John 5 1st John chapter 5 verse 4 says for everyone who has been born of God regenerated overcomes the overcomes the world that's an indicative amen overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith our faith who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the

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Son of God amen that's indicative that's gospel indicative right there that's it that's the answer recall that regeneration is when

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God places his spirit in us and gives us a new peripeteal a new lifestyle of new habits we live differently because God gives us these new desires he transforms us and makes us new creations new creatures so back when

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I preached on the passing darkness of old in the shining light of the new I summarize the light that marks true believers and their lifestyle by using the acronym called coughs or yeah coughs coughs c -a -w -f -s coughs this is also very helpful for the answering this question today of how we fight the world

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C is for confessing our sin a is for abstaining from sin

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W is walking in the light F is fellowshipping with God and his people and s is striving for obedience so there's positive and negative there did you see that there's positive and negative in the positive sense we see walking in the light fellowshipping with God striving for obedience that's positive the negative is confessing our sin and abstaining from sin that's the negative staying away from something or not doing something or as the

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Bible says the first Thessalonians 522 abstaining from every form or appearance of evil and by repenting and turning from sin metaphorically metaphorically turning from sin such that we we sorrow and we turn from sin and we seek

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God's means of grace to stop sinning and to and to put to death the so in addition to that one more very important thing in order to identify in order to identify the enemy the world you need a very important skill and I've already

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I preached on I harp on this all the time it's discernment right we have to identify the enemy properly with discernment

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John exhorts us in chapter 4 of his letter beloved do not believe every spirit but test test examine scrutinize prove discern it's the same exact word that is used in first Thessalonians 521 to examine all things examine all things so test the spirits to see whether they are from God for many false prophets have gone out into the world they the false spirits are from the world therefore they speak from the world and the world listens to them we however we are from God whoever knows

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God listens to us whoever is not from God does not listen listen to us by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error so that is a key ingredient a key skill as believers in order to fight to fight the enemy you have to identify the enemy that requires discernment and knowledge of the truth the light you fight darkness with light the light of God's Word so now there's there's another this is sort of tying into the a and coughs abstaining from sin 2nd

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Corinthians chapter 6 verses 14 through 18 says do not be unequally yoked or bond or bound with unbelievers remember what the definition of word world was on regenerate civilization on believers on believing civilization for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness or what fellowship has light with darkness what accord or agreement has

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Christ with Belial with Satan or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever what agreement has the temple of God with idols for we are the temple of the

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Living God as God said I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them and I will be their

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God and they will be my people therefore therefore come out from among them from the worldly temptations of unbelieving society from the world and be separate separate distinct and separate from says the

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Lord and touch no unclean thing then I will welcome you and I will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me says the

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Lord Almighty amen amen so I want to excuse me

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I want to leave you I know there's there's a very important things that we have to consider here that I hope we take the time to meditate on and to digest properly but I want to leave you with one final gospel saturated indicative of encouragement 1st

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John 4 4 says you are from God little children you have overcome them the false

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Antichrist spirits because why greater is he who is in you then he who is in the world amen amen let's go ahead and bow now in prayer as we close our gracious Lord and Heavenly Father we thank you once again for the opportunity to receive the truth of your word we ask father

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God that you would help us to meditate on it daily and to grow in the grace and knowledge of our

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Lord and Savior father God help us Lord and equip us to to discern the enemy to know the enemy the world the flesh and the devil and to know how to fight against the enemy the world the flesh and the devil help us

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Lord equip us and help us as believers to remember to put on the full armor of God as your word in Ephesians 6 says and to continue to grow and in holiness and in sound doctrine so that we may be better able to withstand the fiery darts of the wicked one

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Lord we ask that you would bless those who were not able to come today we ask that you would help us to encourage one another and to as armies as an army of your people

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Lord as as God's army and as the the army of spiritual

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Israel the church militant father God we ask that you would empower us and help us help us to support each other in this fierce battle and struggle between us and the enemy of the world the flesh and the devil we thank you father

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God for all that you've done for us and have done for us and and continue to do for us and will do for us in Jesus name we pray 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 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 if you're looking for a church in the

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El Paso Texas area or for more information about our church sermons and ministries such as simple referendum on the radio and thorn crown network podcast please contact us at thorn crown ministries calm and may the mercy peace and love of our triune