“Those Who Went Out Were Never In”: Apostolic Admonitions Against Antichrist | 1 John 2:18-19

ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church

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Okay, so before I start here, I did want to mention a few things from the hymns that we sing.

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My Jesus, I love Thee. I love how it says, I love Thee because Thou hast first loved me.

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Amen? That's God's sovereignty right there. That's going to be part of the message for today as well and ongoing.

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And turning back to the Hark the Glad Sound, the hymn there, there's something interesting here where it says,

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He comes, in the second stanza, He comes the captives to release in Satan's prison hell.

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So it kind of depends on what you mean by that or how you interpret that. If by Satan's prison you mean the dominion of the kingdoms of this earth, then yes, that is true.

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Sometimes I get taken to mean like Hades, the underworld shield. And Satan is not that's not

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Satan's reign. That's that's God's reign. Hell is God's hell, right? Just like the devil is

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God's devil, as Luther also said. So just something to be aware of there.

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Now, I want to continue today to unpack the deep truths contained in this passage.

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The depths of God, as 1 Corinthians 2 .10 says. And I really don't want to rush through this because we really need to carefully work our way through this.

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And which brings me to have to give give a formal apology to you all because I miscalculated the verses that I was going to preach on today.

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It's not going to be so much 19 through 20 as it is 18 through 19. I realized that I was trying to figure out how to preach through all these all this good stuff and that there's more that I wanted to say.

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So because this text is really, really packed with much solid meat and rich rubies for us to receive and to internalize.

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So and just for awareness sake, I think most of you already know that I am bivocational.

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So sometimes I don't realize how far I'm able to get through a passage until late on Saturday. And so I don't always

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I don't always get it, get the verses right. And so just just to bear with me on that.

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But I trust that you'll be blessed anyway. OK, I trust that the message will bless you. And last week we saw how this very passage sets the end times, the end time stage for a divine drama, a divine drama for the last hour.

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Right. The last hour, as well as the characters, including the good guys, which are the children, us believers.

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And John, which take it to mean the church itself, the

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Church of Christ, the elect people of God, those chosen by God and the bad guys.

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Right. Both the Antichrist's plural and the antagonist, the arch nemesis,

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Antichrist singular. Right. So and of course, the hero of the story is none other than Jesus Christ, the righteous.

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Right. Amen. So this is the holy one of Israel, our savior. And there is the divine plot, the divine plot to this drama, which is that they, the many false

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Christians who have appeared among us within the church, but they went out from us to make it known that they were actually

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Antichrist and therefore were never really of us.

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They were never truly in the sheepfold of God. They were never truly

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God's sheep and therefore never truly belong to him. Right.

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That's why the title for the sermon is Those Who Went Out Were Never In.

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Right. And I added a subtitle to that. Again, bear with me. Apostolic Admonitions Against Antichrist.

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Apostolic Admonitions Against Antichrist. I like that alliteration that it sounds good to say.

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So very important subject matter. Now, turn with me back to verse 18 in 1st

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John, chapter 2. I want to focus on these specific verses for today, verses 18 through 19.

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That's what I meant to say. That's going to be the focus again here. And you will note carefully here what

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John says by way of the Holy Spirit's guidance. Children, it is the last hour.

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And just as you heard. Note that phrase that Antichrist one is coming.

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Even now, many Antichrist have appeared already. Right. From this, we know that it is the last hour.

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They, the Antichrist, went out from us, but they were not really of us.

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For if they were of us, they would have remained with us. But they went out so that it would be manifested that they all are not of us.

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And bear in mind, that's why scripture just to just to touch on this while I'm on this.

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That's why the scripture says, behold, if any man is in Christ, behold, all things are made new.

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You will see evidence of a believer's life by his thoughts, his words, his actions.

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Behold, all things are new. And it will also be manifested when somebody is not saved by their actions, words and deeds.

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They will leave as this letter tells us. So I want to bring your attention to something here before we leave.

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Verse 18. OK. And it's noted. Notice now how the apostle, the beloved apostle.

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Tells his readers what you have heard already. Right. What you have heard already, which is what?

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That Antichrist is coming and many are already here. Already here.

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Now, question. Who did they hear this from? Who did they hear this from?

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Who warned them about the Antichrist spirit and its many deceptions and deceivers?

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Turn back with me, please, to Jude 17, so we can see the clear answer from God himself.

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Jude 17. That's the second to last book of the

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New Testament. Hopefully I got that right.

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In Jude, verse 17. Note what the word says here.

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But you, beloved, you, you and I, believers, beloved of God.

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I know that all of you among whom I went about preaching. I'm sorry. I read the wrong verses.

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Excuse me. But you, beloved, must remember, must remember.

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So they've already been telling them these things. Must remember what the words that were spoken beforehand by who?

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By the apostles themselves of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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That they were saying to you in the last time, in the last hour, there will be mockers, antichrists, followers after their own ungodly lusts.

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These are the ones who cause divisions, schisms, worldly minded, right?

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The world, the flesh, the devil not having the spirit because they instead live according to the flesh.

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Right. As Romans 8, 13 and countless other scriptures say. So this is what they were warning about the apostles.

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This gives us incredible insight into what the apostles were preaching in this last hour.

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In this last time. Do you see the emphasis here?

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The dire warnings, the sounding of alarms. Beware, beloved.

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Beware of antichrist. Beware of deceivers and false teachers. Beware, because they will creep in from among you.

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Now, let me raise you one as you turn with me to Acts 20, verse 25,

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Acts chapter 20. Let's look at what

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God's word says in the history and God's breathed out history of the early church.

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The beginnings of the New Testament church and Acts chapter 20, verse 25.

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The word says, and now behold, pay attention. I know that all of you among whom

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I went about preaching the kingdom will no longer see my face. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.

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Oh, why? He explains, for I did not shrink from declaring to you.

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I did not neglect. I did not disregard from declaring to you the whole purpose, plan and counsel of God.

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All of it. Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the

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Holy Spirit has made you overseers, pastors, elders to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.

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With his own blood, I know that that's why Jesus is the hero of the story.

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Amen. I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in from among you.

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Come in among you. Anti Christ's. Not sparing the flock and from among your own selves, men will arise speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them.

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Therefore, be watchful, be watchful, beloved, remembering that night and day for a period of three years.

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I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.

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And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who have been sanctified.

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Do you see the emphasis more clearly now? I didn't even have to raise my voice.

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The word is raising its voice, God's voice at us.

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It's telling us clear as day what we need to be looking out for.

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This is what the apostles regularly preached about.

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They were persistently warning against anti Christ and his agenda.

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Against the spirit of anti Christ deception operating in the many anti Christ, even now.

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Right now, this brings us to an important issue to consider.

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Ask yourself this. Does modern preaching tend to reflect the preaching of the apostles and what they emphasize and what they warned about?

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Should it? Should it reflect what the apostles preached? Because, you know,

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I've actually spoken to some pastors who think that they know better than the apostles themselves.

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Then Paul, then God, then God himself. I talked to them and they say things like, oh, you know, that that uncomfortable stuff that they preached about.

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It doesn't apply to us anymore. That was back then. This is now. And yet they forget that all scripture, all scripture is what breathed out by God and therefore profitable, profitable.

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And these men don't know what they're doing. They don't know what they're doing.

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The so -called pastors, because are we not still in this last hour that John and the apostles refer to?

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Remember, remember what I said last week? If back then there were already many anti Christ that have appeared.

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How many more anti Christ have appeared before us now? Two thousand years later.

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How many more false teachers, false prophets, false religions?

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Take one for take Islam as one example. Islam didn't come around until the Middle Ages, until the late 600s.

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And look, there's almost a billion Muslims now. And they deny that Christ, that God had a son that died for his people.

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They say that's the highest heresy, the highest blasphemy you can commit in Islam is to say that Christ had a son, that Jesus, that God had a son.

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The Bible says the apostles say God says that that is anti Christ. And that's just one of many examples.

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So this is what we have before us today. And allow allow me to be bold now.

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OK, allow me to be bold. This is to pastors and teachers who claim to be instructors of the of God's word to the to the flock of God.

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OK, if you are not preaching regularly against anti Christ deceptions and false teachers.

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If you are not regularly warning God's people against them.

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Then you're preaching has serious problems. It is defective.

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It is imbalanced. It lacks prophetic power, authority and substance.

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It is unbiblical. It is unbiblical.

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You are being unfaithful and disobedient to your calling as a pastor, to your obligation, your duty to hold fast the faithful word, which is in accordance with the teaching, so that you will be you will be able both to exhort in sound, pure, error free doctrine and to reprove to refute those who contradict sound doctrine.

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And if it sounded like I was reading God's word, it's because that came from Titus one nine. Amen. Sadly, many pastors today disregard that and.

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That and and to reprove those who contradict. And that's practically half your job as a pastor.

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It's not enough to just preach the word, preach the truth, preach sound doctrine. You have to refute those who contradict sound doctrine.

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Antichrist, we have to warn God's people because they are everywhere. They are everywhere and they will even come in from within us.

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So we have to be prepared for that. And needless to say, and consequently, churches suffer because of their neglect.

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Compromise and apostasy soon follows because they end up inviting false teaching into their churches instead of calling it out like God says to do because of their negligence, their dereliction, their cowardice.

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Let me put it this way. OK, let me put it another way. If as a pastor, as a teacher, you if you are not calling out false teachers and antichrist consistently and regularly, that means more than once a year.

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OK, it means regularly. Then you should not even be a pastor because you are disregarding one of the primary responsibilities that we have as pastors, as overseers of God's people, people who have to defend the flock against.

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What did Paul say? What did Christ say? The savage wolves who disguise themselves in sheep's clothing to look like God's people, but they are in fact antichrist.

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So that makes you unfit. Unfit and unqualified for the work of ministry.

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You are not cut out for it and you should not do it if you are not going to do that.

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We must reprove. That means to correct. We must rebuke.

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That means to warn. We must exhort, admonish, encourage, stir in the right direction, away from the error and towards the truth.

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And if it sounded like I was quoting scripture, it's because that came from second Timothy four to in the command to preach the word.

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That's what it means to preach the word of God. All those verbs that describe and define biblical preaching are corrective.

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They are to correct. To point us towards the truth by also correcting the lies.

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They warn. We must be warned. Because the entire

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New Testament identifies and calls out specific people, specific spirits like the antichrist spirit and specific teachings by name.

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It's not some nebulous, oh, there are people out there that teach this stuff. No, no.

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They name names. Repeatedly. Woe to you.

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Who? Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Beware of Alexander the coppersmith.

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Beware of Janice and Jambres. You can't read the New Testament if you don't like name calling. I wish you

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Judaizers would cut your manhood off. Emasculate yourselves because you preach a false gospel.

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It sounds like what I'm saying is. Is crazy in our time because people don't do this.

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There are still churches, thank God, that do this, but this is not them. This is not the mainstream, as I think you all know and are aware.

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Not to mention, not to mention the entirety of the Old Testament, the prophets of old. Why? Why did they stone and kill the prophets?

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Why did they persecute the prophets? Because they called out their sin. Why was

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John the Baptist beheaded? Because he called out Herod's sin. Corrected.

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Don't even bother reading the imprecatory Psalms. In the book of Psalms. Look those up.

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Imprecatory Psalms. Wow. The modern churches have no, no way of making sense of these things.

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Of how, of how, what God thinks and does and says about false teaching. God is a

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God of truth and he despises error. He despises it. Hates it.

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We need to love what God loves and hate what God hates. Amen. So, I mean, again, just look at how

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Jesus himself preached. Look at how the apostles preached. Why do people in churches.

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Act like Jesus and the apostles were not hardcore. About calling people out.

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About calling out names. About condemning false teaching and teachers.

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But oh, it's considered rude. It's considered uncharitable. To call out heretics by name.

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Shame on them. They are going against God. It may sound radical.

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It may sound extreme. It may sound uncharitable today. But that's because modern preaching and church culture is so far removed.

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From the biblical standards. It has deviated and in large part, in many ways, it's because of smug.

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Refined, sophisticated, quote -unquote intellectuals like C .S. Lewis.

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Speaking of name calling. Let me do that for you all. He's the well -known author of Chronicles of Narnia.

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Mere Christianity. Very influential. Still considered one of the most popular

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Christian authors to this day. And yet, he not only denied the objective inspiration of scripture.

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He said that the gospels may no doubt contain errors. That's his words. Not mine.

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Lewis also said that the psalmists. The ones who wrote the psalms were, quote,

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I quote you. Ferocious, self -pitying, barbaric men. And he described certain psalms as fatal confusion.

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Devilish. Diabolical. Contemptible.

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Petty and vulgar. This is what this man said about God's word.

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That, beloved, is the spirit of Antichrist. That is not of God.

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That is Antichrist. And it's the same false ecumenical spirit that also moved

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C .S. Lewis to say, Oh, well, I offer no help to anyone who is hesitating between two

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Christian denominations. You will not learn from me whether you ought to become an

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Anglican, a Methodist, a Presbyterian, or a Roman Catholic. This is from one of his most popular books in his foreword,

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Mere Christianity. And I've been in churches and you hear Christians all the time talk about how much they love this book.

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And what's going on? It's because Antichrist is not being warned against.

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That was a direct quote from that book. And I saw if you see if you go to Amazon, you look up Mere Christianity.

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It is the number one bestseller in Christian apologetics. OK, apologetics in a book about how

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I'm not going to show you how the Roman Catholic Church teaches and preaches a false gospel. That is condemned by God because it does not teach that justification is made is only by faith alone.

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Apart from works of righteousness. Shame. It's a shame.

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So we. This is serious stuff, beloved.

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I know these are hard things, but it needs to be said. We as pastors must do this.

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We must do this to properly care for God's people. If you care about God's people, if you actually care about God's people, about protecting them, then you must take that club out that the shepherd would use with nails on it and beat the wolves out of your flock.

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That false teaching and false teachers out of your flock. Now, before you think

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I'm saying physically, I don't mean physical violence. I mean, refute it with the sword of the spirit, obviously.

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By God's word. Amen. I'm not saying that we are called to do this exclusively.

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As pastors, but look at what the word says. We must do it regularly and emphatically and consistently.

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And that is why, beloved, I strive to preach this way against the church of Rome, against false teachers, because and get this to see people.

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Protestants, we love to give lip service to the Reformation. Oh, look, the Reformation and how God worked and how powerful it was.

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And ask yourself, why was the Reformation so powerful? Why was Reformation preaching so powerful?

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Why was it so explosive? Why did God use it so mightily? It was not just because the gospel was recovered by the reformers like men like Luther, who taught that justification was by faith alone, not by works, but it's by grace alone.

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But also because Reformation preaching contrasted the true gospel from the false gospel of Rome and exposed the

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Antichrist. Namely, the papacy, the popes.

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That is why Reformation preaching and the Reformation was so powerful, because they began to follow more in line with what

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Titus 1, 9 and the word of God says to do when you preach. And just one example, which

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I was is one of my favorites. When when Luther was condemned by the pope in a papal bull called

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Exsurge Domine, arise, O Lord. That's what it means in Latin. Luther responded with a track called against the execrable, which means inferior, filthy bull of Antichrist.

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Who is he talking about? He was talking about none other than the pope. That is what the reformers unanimously, unanimously identified the

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Antichrist. Beloved, we know who the Antichrist is now, thanks to in large part to the reformers, to the

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Protestants of old. The Antichrist is the papacy of Rome. And yet you look at modern church culture, you see like what

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I mentioned last time, the movie Left Behind. Who got right? You watch the movie

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Left Behind. The pope actually gets raptured in Left Behind as one of God's people.

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My God, like what? I can't even express the astonishment of how backwards this is, but that is what is before us today.

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We that's not good. We can't have this in our church. I mean, we have to be faithful to the

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Lord and his word. So that's not just for pastors, though, right?

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Now, we as God's people, those of us who are not pastors, which is most of us, we,

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God's people, need to seek out this standard of preaching that is explicitly defined in Scripture and congregate in churches with pastors who are fit to do it and actually do it.

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They practice what needs to be preached. That's the kind of preaching we need.

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Let's make corrective preaching great again. How about that? Let's make

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Puritan preaching great again. Reform preaching great again.

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True Protestant preaching great again. Do not allow yourself to be conditioned by cowardly pastors or by compromised preaching.

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And it's a great interview question, too. You know, for those looking for a church, an important question to ask your potential pastor is, how often do you call out false teachers?

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How often do you do it? But there needs to be a follow up question, right? Because which ones do you regard as false?

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Because we obviously don't want to be in a church that's calling out men who are sound and faithful as false teachers.

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And that's what happened to me when I was King James only is, and they regularly blasted and condemned John Calvin, who was a man of God.

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He was a reformer. Yes, they had their sins. They had their errors. Nobody's perfect. And they had grievous sins.

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So did Luther. That doesn't change the fact that God used them mightily to recover the gospel in society and in the world.

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So we need to rightly identify who the false teachers are and the ones who are true.

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Now, turn with me to Romans 16, 17. This is very, very important.

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And it's just to show you once again how emphatic God is in his word.

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No, no to you. This is this is very important.

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You can judge a pastor, a pastor's preaching. You can judge a great deal by what they don't say.

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What are they not saying but should be saying? That says a lot about a pastor.

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Notice what they don't say. Romans 16, 17. Again, God's inspired word, contrary to what men like C .S.

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Lewis might think. These are the words of God, the very words of God.

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Romans 16, 17. Now, I urge you, brothers, not just pastors.

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OK, brothers, all of us believers to keep your eye on those who cause dissensions, divisions and stumblings contrary to the teaching which you learn and turn away from them.

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Mark them, identify them, avoid them. For such men are slaves, not of our

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Lord Christ, but of their own stomach, their own flesh, and by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.

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They are antichrists, antichrists. I hope this is

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I hope this is much clearer now, because sadly, a lot of Christians, they don't look for this kind of preaching.

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They don't stomach it because they haven't been conditioned by God's word to receive it.

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Now, speaking of antichrist, this is a perfect segue into verse 19. Let's transition over to verse 19.

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Now, in 1st John, chapter 2, I want to focus on this.

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This is a powerful verse as well. Verse 19, 1st

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John, chapter 2, verse 19. They went out from us, but they were not really of us.

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For if they were of us, they would have remained with us. But they went out so that it would be manifested that they all are not of us.

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OK. Very important things to unpack here. This verse illustrates something important about translating

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Scripture that we all need to be aware of. We all need to be aware of this.

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OK. Very important. The Greek word that.

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OK. Note in the last part of this verse, the Greek word that, in that they are all not of us, could mean one of two things.

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It could mean either that or because. OK. So either it would be manifested that they all are not of us, or the antichrist were manifested because they left.

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OK. So you can see by what the verse and the passage is teaching that this is primarily focusing on or manifesting, identifying these antichrists as false brothers, rather than on how they were identified as antichrists, rather than because they left.

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Right. So this is where we need to be careful, because public service announcement.

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Translating Scripture. Listen carefully. Translating Scripture often requires interpreting

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Scripture. And the two must frequently dance together so that translation can be faithful to the original languages, to the context and the authorial intent, or what the authors intended.

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I have some really helpful quotes here from our good friend, reformed theologian,

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Gordon Clark. He says, translation is sometimes more interpretation than it is grammar.

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And there are degrees of mixture. We need both sometimes. And I mention this because when we first switched our church

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Bible version to the Legacy Standard Bible, I kind of misspoke a little bit. The translators, because the translators of the

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Legacy Standard Bible, which is an excellent version, that's why we use it. It's one of the best, if not the best.

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But the translators claim to merely translate the Bible without interpreting it.

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And they say, well, we leave that to the work of pastors. But this is impossible.

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OK. It is impossible. Why? Because there is no neutrality when it comes to translation.

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There is no such thing as an unbiased translation. No such thing.

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And this is very similar to history and historical methods, right? How you view or do history.

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Because all history is biased. All history is biased. You have to presuppose something in order to do history, in order to interpret history, and likewise, in order to translate scripture.

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What is your conviction about the word of God? That says a lot about how you're going to translate it. If you don't believe it was breathed out by God, you don't think that's going to affect how you translate it?

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It's just stating the obvious, right? So in other words, again, it is often impossible to translate a text without first interpreting the text.

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So especially when it comes to complex passages, especially when it comes to those, or with words that can have different meanings.

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And as we all know, words can have multiple meanings. Multiple meanings.

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Homophones and homographs, right? Bear and bear. My medieval literature professor would often make fun of his students.

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He would say, don't bear with me because you wouldn't want to see me naked. You're misspelling the word bear because you're referring to another, not bear naked, but bear with me.

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Right? So words can have different meanings. Now, keep this in mind.

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This is very important. Keep this in mind. Always keep this in mind. Now, in light of what the apostle just said here, does this mean that we as believers can lose our salvation?

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Does it mean, you know, because it says they went out. They went out. They left.

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So what does that say about us? Are we one of them? Or are we one of God's?

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How do we know? Let me encourage you all today that the answer is a huge resounding no.

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OK? No. You cannot lose your salvation.

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And don't worry. I will prove that to you today. So in fact, on the contrary, this verse teaches that these false

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Antichrist professors were never saved to begin with.

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They were never saved to begin with. They went out from us because they were never truly of us.

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They were never truly saved. Those who went out were never in.

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Amen? So they were never God's sheep to begin with.

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They were goats. They were wolves. They were a different animal altogether, so to speak.

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True believers will never fall away. They cannot fall away.

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For I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it, will finish it, will bring it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

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And if it sounded like I was reading scripture, it's because I was reading from Philippians 1, 6.

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Amen? This is God's truth. Jesus always finishes what he starts.

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Amen? Always and forever. Let me assure you even more.

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Turn with me to the Gospel of John chapter 10. The Gospel of John chapter 10, verse 24.

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So in the Gospel of John chapter 10, verse 24, we read, The Jews then gathered around him and were saying to him, to Christ, How long will you keep us in suspense?

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If you are the Christ, tell us openly. Jesus answered them,

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I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my

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Father's name, these bear witness of me. But you do not believe because you are not of my sheep.

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Okay, wait a minute, wait a minute. Stop with me here. Notice what

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Jesus just said. Notice that Jesus does not say, you are not my sheep because you do not believe.

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But he says instead, you do not believe because you are not my sheep.

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Because you are not my sheep. Chew on that for a minute. Meditate on that.

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Why is that, beloved? It is like what we just read or sang in today's hymn.

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I love thee because thou hast first loved me. Amen? It was

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Christ that loved us first and chose us first. Marvel and meditate then on God's absolute sovereignty over the salvation of individuals, of his people, by his grace, by his mercy, by his perfect finished work, life and blood and death and propitiation by his grace alone.

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That is the gospel of Christ. That is the gospel of the reformation, of the reformers, of the true evangelical

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Protestants. That is what we must believe to be saved.

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But remember, we are not saved because we believe it.

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We believe it because God saved us and chose us first. Before the foundation of the world,

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God had already determined to bring us into his fold and save us and love us.

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That is what it took. It took God himself to do it because we ourselves were hopeless apart from the perfect Savior, the hero of the story.

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Amen. So that, beloved, is so important.

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Now, let's continue as we close out this passage in verse 27. Again, it gets even better.

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My sheep, Christ's sheep, hear my voice and I know them.

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I know them first. Notice the priority. I know them and they therefore consequently follow me.

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As a result, because they hear my voice calling out to them.

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Just like when he spoke to Lazarus when he was already dead. Come forth and Lazarus.

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What did he do? He followed him. Amen. This is

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God's power, but it gets better. Verse 28. And I give them eternal life and they will what?

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Will never perish. Ever. I love how the

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LSB puts that. Ever perish. And no one, no one will snatch them out of my hand.

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Verse 29. My father who has given them to me by his sovereign grace and mercy is greater than all.

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Greater than all our sin. Greater than everything and anyone that can strive against us and our salvation.

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He is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand.

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Look at the emphasis of Christ assurance. How amazing and beautiful the words of our

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Savior are. Therefore, beloved, take peace, take comfort, take true joy.

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In this biblical gospel of God's sovereign grace. That Jesus and the father and the spirit, the totality of the

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Godhead, the triune God are never gonna let you go and are never gonna leave you nor forsake you.

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Amen. Woo. This is just. Man, this is really affecting me.

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So. I want to I want to leave you all with that today.

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I know there were some hard truths, hard words that, as you can see, need to be said.

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They need they have to be preached. They have to be taught. We have to know the truth and discern the lies.

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Like Hebrews says, we must exercise our powers of discernment constantly, constant practice in order to know truth from error.

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Good from evil. Right from wrong. Light from darkness. In the language of First John.

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Right. Beloved, let us close out now with a word of prayer.

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Our dear, precious Lord. Gracious heavenly father. We thank you so much for your sovereign grace and your sovereign, amazing gospel truth,

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Lord, that you have saved us and justified us by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.

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For your glory alone, based on the authority of your words alone.

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Lord, help us to internalize these things and help us to know that we are already saved, father, and that you will never, ever, not ever lose us, that you will never forsake us.

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Father, help us to be ready to rest in your precious gospel, to rest in your son.

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Who says, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden and burdened, and I will give you true rest and peace, which surpasses all understanding.

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Thank you, Lord, so much for these things. We ask that you lift us up, father, that you draw nigh to us by your spirit, by your means, by the faithful preaching of your word, by the true fellowship of God's people and by your grace that has greater than all our sin.

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In Jesus almighty name, the hero of the story, we pray. Amen.

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Thank you for listening to the sermons of Thorn Crown Covenant Baptist Church, where the Bible alone and the

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Bible in its entirety is 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.

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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 Reformanda Radio and Thorn Crown Network Podcast, please contact us at thorncrownministries .com.