Latest / Reformed Thinking / Greater Is He Who Is in You: The Victory of God over the Spirit of Antichrist (1 John 4:4)

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Greater Is He Who Is in You: The Victory of God over the Spirit of Antichrist (1 John 4:4) · Reformed Thinking

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Usually, you know, when we talk about receiving a medical
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diagnosis, there is a very clear expectation of precision.
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It feels almost like engineering.
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Right. Yeah, very mechanical.
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Yeah, you fall, you break your arm, you go to the hospital and
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the X-ray shows that jagged white line right across the
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bone. The doctor just points to the
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screen and says well there it is.
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That is the problem. It is binary.
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I mean it is broken or it is not breaking.
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Absolutely. It is clean.
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The threat is identified, the parameters are known, and the
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solution is, you know, usually a straightforward mechanical
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process. And there is something
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incredibly comforting about that, even when it hurts.
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As humans, we just, we'd like things to be visible.
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Sure, we want to see it. We want our threats to be
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obvious. We want them categorized.
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If there is a wolf in the woods, we want it to look like a wolf,
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howl like a wolf and act like a wolf.
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Yeah, but that is rarely how it works.
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Right, because then you step into the world of spiritual
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discernment, you step into the world of theology, of church
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history, and of dearly Christian living, and suddenly that X-ray
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machine was completely shattered.
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Oh, completely. We are looking at a diagnostic
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landscape that is, well, honestly, it is murky.
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The threats do not look like threats.
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It is the absolute definition of diagnostic Muddy Waters.
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And that is the terrifying part of the Christian walk that so
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many people just sort of ignore. The threats are not always
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obvious. Sometimes the most dangerous
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things you will ever encounter look incredibly healthy on the
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surface. I mean, they look like
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enlightenment, they look like compassion.
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They look like progress. Welcome to Reformed Thinking.
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We are so glad you could join us for this custom tailored deep
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dive. If you are listening to this,
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you are stepping into a massive theological evaluation today.
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They have a lot of ground to cover.
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We really do. We are taking an extensive look
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into a single monumental sentence written in the 1st
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century, which is first John 4.4.
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To do this, we have a stack of sources in front of us
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specifically dissecting 2 massive theological expositions
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titled Greater is He Who is in You and The Invincible
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Indweller. Both are just dense with
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incredible insights. Yes, and our mission today is to
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uncover the divine assurance provided against spiritual
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deception. We want to know how to spot the
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threat when the X-ray machine is broken.
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OK, let's unpack this. The Christian life is not a
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neutral walk through a friendly world.
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Not at all. It is a standoff.
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We are talking about a standoff against polished, persuasive and
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incredibly popular falsehoods. That is a crucial starting point
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for you, the listener, to grasp right out of the gate.
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The biblical text does not flatter the church with human
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optimism. No it doesn't.
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It does not tell you that everything is fine and humanity
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is basically good. It comforts the Church with
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divine reality. The world constantly tells you
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to listen to every voice, to follow every inward impulse, to
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honor every claim to spirituality.
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Right, the whole live your true thing.
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Yes, precisely. But John, the author of this
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letter, writes like an aged shepherd who knows the wolves
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are not just near, they are already inside the pen.
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And worse, they're dressed in sheep's clothing, speaking the
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exact language of the flock. Man, that is a terrifying image.
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To really grasp the weight of this standoff, we need to travel
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back in time. Let us set the scene a little.
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Bit OK, let's do it. We are looking at the late 1st
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century, the source of place this around 8085 to 95.
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The apostle John, the one who rested his head on the chest of
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Jesus at the Last Supper, is an old man now.
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Probably the last surviving apostle at this point.
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Right. All of his friends have been
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martyred and he is shepherding the church in the city of
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Ephesus. Now we need to understand
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Ephesus. This was not some sleepy little
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village where nothing happened. Oh, far from it.
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I mean, Ephesus was the crown jewel of Asia Minor.
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It was a massive, bustling economic and cultural hub.
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Like a modern metropolis. Yeah, picture the sensory
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overload of a modern metropolis, but infused with ancient
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paganism. It was filled to the brim with
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idolatry. It was home to the Temple of
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Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
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You had thousands of people making their living off of this
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Pagan temple system. Silversmiths, merchants,
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priests. On top of that, you have the
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rising pressure of emperor worship, where acknowledging
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Caesar as a God was essentially a civic duty.
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So you had religion and patriotism sort of blended
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together. Yes, and swirling through all of
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this was intense Greek philosophical speculation.
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So it was a city of competing voices.
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It was loud. If you were a Christian in
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Ephesus, you were swimming against a massive cultural
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current every single day. Every.
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Single day, yeah. But here is the thing that
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really stands out in the sources.
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The immediate crisis for the church in Ephesus, the thing
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that is causing John to write this letter, was not an external
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attack from Roman soldiers. The government was not knocking
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down their doors at this specific moment.
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Right, It wasn't Nero or the mission burning them at the
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stake right then. It was an internal threat.
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The church was facing a devastating split.
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The text called these people secessionists.
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Yes, the secessionists. These were not atheists throwing
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rocks from the outside. These were false teachers who'd
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been sitting in the pews. Right next to them.
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Yeah, they had shared meals with the church.
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They had sung the hymns. And then, well, they abandoned
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the assembly. They walked.
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Out, hissed up and left. But they did not just walk away
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quietly. They were actively trying to
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deceive the remaining flock. They were trying to pull people
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out with them. They were insiders who turn
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rogue. That brings To find an analogy,
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think about a mutiny on a ship in the middle of the ocean.
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OK, how about that? If a pirate ship attacks you on
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the open water, that is terrifying.
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Sure, the cannons are firing, the swords are clashing, but in
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that moment your entire crew bands together to fight off the
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external enemy. Right.
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You know who the bad guys are. You do.
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But a mutiny? A mutiny is a totally different
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kind of psychological trauma. The person you shared rations
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with, The person who stood watch with you in the freezing dark.
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The person whose family you know suddenly draws a sword on you.
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That is a harsh reality. It really is that internal
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betrayal shatters trust in a way an external attack never could.
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Why is that internal doctrinal betrayal so much more
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devastating to a congregation than, say, external persecution?
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Well, because it strikes at the absolute core of your shared
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reality. I mean, when external
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persecutors attack, say the Roman government throws you in
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prison, they are attacking your physical safety, but they
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actually end up galvanizing your faith.
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The Church almost always grows under physical persecution.
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The blood of the mortars is the seed of the church.
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Precisely. But when internal heretics
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arise, they attack your intellectual and spiritual
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foundation. The believers in Ephesus were
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left looking at empty chairs on Sunday morning, asking
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themselves agonizing questions. Like did we get this wrong?
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Yeah. Did we miss something?
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Are those people who left actually more enlightened than
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we are? They said they had a higher
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knowledge, a secret truth. What if they are right and we
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are stuck in the dark? It breeds paralyzing doubt.
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And the specific heresy they were dealing with is fascinating
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because it sounds ancient, but as we will see, it is so
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relevant today. The sources identify it as a
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form of proto Gnosticism, specifically taught by a man
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named Cerinthus. Yes, Cerinthus, He is a major
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figure in early church history for all the wrong reasons.
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Let us examine Cerinthus What? What was he teaching that caused
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such a massive fracture in the Ephesian church?
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Well, Cerinthus pushed a dualistic Greek philosophy that
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that was very popular in the ancient world.
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The core of this philosophy was the idea that matter, the
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physical stuff we can touch, our bodies, the dirt, the trees, was
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inherently evil. Just bad by definition.
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Right. In their minds the physical
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world was a mistake. Only the spirit, the immaterial,
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was good and pure. OK, so flesh is bad, spirit is
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good. That is the premise.
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How does that infect their view of Jesus?
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It infects it entirely because if all physical matter is evil,
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then God, who is purely good spirit, cannot possibly take on
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human flesh. Oh, I see.
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The incarnation becomes a philosophical impossibility for
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them. So Cerinthus came up with a
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workaround. He claimed that Jesus was just a
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normal human being born naturally to Joseph and Mary.
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So no virgin birth. No virgin birth.
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He taught that at Jesus's baptism, the divine Christ
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Spirit descended upon him like a dove.
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This Christ Spirit empowered him to do miracles and teach wisdom.
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OK, but there is a catch, right? A huge catch, and this is the
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deadly part. Cerinthus taught that right
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before the crucifixion, the divine Christ Spirit left the
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human Jesus. It just, you know, flew away.
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So he is saying, Jesus the man died on the cross, but the
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divine Christ did not suffer at all.
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He severed the deity of Christ from his humanity.
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Spot on. The divine Spirit could not
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suffer on a physical cross according to Sorenthus.
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So the Christ Spirit abandons Jesus, and only a mere mortal
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bleeds out on the wood. Wow.
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I mean, I could see how that appeals to a Greek philosopher
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who wants to keep God clean from the messiness of the physical
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world. Sure, it makes logical sense in
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their framework. But why is that specific heresy
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so deadly? I mean, why does John treat this
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like a 5 alarm fire? Because if the divine sun did
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not bleed on the cross, there is 0 substitutionary atonement.
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Break that down for me. Why is that the case?
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Well, the biblical doctrine of atonement requires an infinite
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payment for an infinite crime. Humanity has rebelled against an
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infinitely holy Creator. The debt we owe to God's justice
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is eternal. A regular human being, even a
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very good one, can only die for his own sins.
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A mortal's blood has no infinite value.
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You can't cover anyone else. Right.
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Therefore, if only a human Jesus died on the cross, that death
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has no capacity to satisfy the wrath of an infinite God on
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behalf of millions of believers. Oh wow.
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If Cerinthus is right, the cross is just a tragedy of a good
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teacher getting executed. It is not a triumph.
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It is not a payment. It's just a sad story.
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Yes, if Surrendus is right, humanity is still completely
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dead in sin. We have no Savior, and we are
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fully under God's terrifying wrath.
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The stakes are not academic, they are eternal.
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There's a wild historical anecdote about this in the
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sources that I absolutely love. It comes from the early church,
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Father Irenaeus OH. Yes, the bathhouse story.
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Yeah, and Irenaeus was a disciple of Polycarp, who in
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turn was a direct disciple of the apostle John.
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So the historical lineage of this story is very tight.
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It's extremely reliable. Irenaeus recorded a story about
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John in Ephesus. John goes into a public bath
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house. Now, Roman bath houses were
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massive structures, places for socializing, relaxing,
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conducting business. They were the center of the
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community. Exactly.
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And John is just there to bathe, but as he walks in, he sees
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Sorrentus the heretic already inside, just just hanging out.
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And John does not walk over to start a polite dialogue.
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He does not try to find common ground, the account says.
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John immediately turns around and runs out of the building,
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yelling to his companions. Let us fly, lest even the bat
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house fall down. Because Sarinthus, the enemy of
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the truth, is within. It is an incredible historical
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snapshot. It shows you the absolute
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visceral reaction the apostles had to false doctrine.
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He. Literally thought the building
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was going to collapse. Yes, John viewed Cirinthus as a
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walking lightning rod for the judgement of God.
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He literally thought the roof might cave in because God's
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wrath was hovering over this man.
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That is intense. It was not a matter of polite
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disagreement over a cup of coffee.
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It was not You have your truth and I have mine.
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It was a matter of spiritual life and death.
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He didn't want to be anywhere near him.
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John viewed this man as an active vessel of Antichrist
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deception, spreading poison that would damn souls to hell.
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Which perfectly brings us to the literary context of the chapter
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we are studying today. First John four.
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We were looking at verses one through 6 to set up verse four.
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OK, because of these false teachers, John issues a direct
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non negotiable command to the church.
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He says, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the
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spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false
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prophets have gone out into the world.
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Test the spirits. Yes, test the spirits.
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We hear that phrase a lot today in modern Christianity.
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But because wildly twisted, doesn't it?
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It absolutely gets twisted, often beyond recognition.
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Modern evangelicalism, heavily influenced by contemporary
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mysticism, often interprets testing the spirits as a mandate
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to evaluate your own internal feelings of.
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Looking for a gut feeling? Yeah, people think it means
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checking in with your subjective nudges, analyzing your dreams,
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or waiting for a still small voice to give you private
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revelations about who to marry, what job to take, or what church
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to attend. They treat spiritual discernment
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like a mood ring. They really do.
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Right. I prayed about it and I just
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have a piece about this decision.
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Even if the decision directly contradicts the Bible.
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They think that feeling of peace is the Holy Spirit passing the
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test. Spot on, but that is not what
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John is saying at all. From a cessationist perspective,
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which our sources strongly support and argue for, the
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miraculous sign gifts, things like extra biblical prophecy,
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new Apostolic revelations, and speaking in tongues ceased with
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the passing of the apostles and the closing of the biblical
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Canon. Meaning God is not writing any
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new chapters. He is not giving new binding
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revelations today. The script is finished.
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The Bible is complete. Precisely Once the foundation of
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the house is laid, you stop pouring concrete.
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The apostles were the foundation.
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Now the Church builds on that foundation through the written
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Word. That makes a lot of sense.
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Therefore, testing the spirits is an objective doctrinal
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mandate. It is not about trusting your
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gut. It is not about evaluating A
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shiver down your spine during a worship song.
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It's about the book. It is about comparing any
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teaching, any theological claim, any video, any book against the
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closed Canon of Scripture. Behind every prophet there is a
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spirit. Good or bad?
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Yes, the spirits animating false prophets are demonic.
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The Spirit animating true teachers is the Holy Spirit, and
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the Holy Spirit wrote the book so he will never contradict the.
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Book John gives a very specific objective test in verse 2.
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He says by this you know the Spirit of God.
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Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the
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flesh is from God. Does the teaching confess that
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Jesus Christ has come in the flesh?
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He hits Cerinthus right between the eyes.
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Yes, the incarnation God becoming true flesh.
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He forces the issue of the physical reality of the Son of
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God. He doesn't leave any wiggle
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room. None at all.
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He establishes A Christological litmus test.
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If a teacher gets the person and work of Christ wrong, everything
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else they say is poisoned water. It does not matter how nice they
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are, how large their churches, or how much they help the poor,
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if they deny the biblical Christ, they are animated by the
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spirit of Antichrist. And if we look at the modern
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landscape applying this test today, the statistics provided
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in our sources are genuinely terrifying.
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They really are sobering. The text site data from the
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State of Theology survey conducted by Ligonier Ministries
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and Lifeway Research, as well as data from Pew Research.
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Listen to these numbers. Go ahead. 53% of professing
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evangelicals view the Holy Spirit as an impersonal force
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rather than the third person of the Trinity.
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Over half. Yeah, over half, 47%, believe
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God accepts the worship of all religions, including Judaism,
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Islam and Hindiism, and upwards of 60% of professing Christians
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hold to at least one New Age belief, actively dabbling in
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mysticism, karma or astrology. What's fascinating here is that
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the exact same demonic spirits that animated the secessionists
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in ancient Ephesus are animating the modern statistics we see in
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those surveys today. Really.
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You see a direct link there. Oh absolutely, it is the exact
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same spirit of error. It is just wearing a different
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cultural outfit. When 53% of people in
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evangelical churches think the Holy Spirit is an impersonal
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force like gravity or the force in Star Wars, they are
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committing A devastating heresy. Because it strips God of his
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personhood. Yes, you cannot have a
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relationship with a force. You can only manipulate a force
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to do your bidding. That is magic, not Christianity.
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That is a huge distinction. And when 47% think God accepts
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all religions, they are explicitly denying Jesus's words
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that he is the only way to the Father.
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Those numbers are staggering. I mean over half of professing
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believers are missing the fundamental nature of God.
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It means the people sitting in the Pew next to you might be
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worshipping a completely different God.
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Man, the Ephesian believers were shaken by this kind of reality
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too. They were wondering if the
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enlightened secessionists had a higher truth, so John writes to
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anchor them. He is writing to say stop
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looking at the crowd leaving the building and start looking at
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the objective truth you already possessed.
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So John commands them to test the spirits.
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He gives them the Christological test, and then in verse four he
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drops the hammer. This is the verse we are
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spending our time on today. This is where we get into the
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grammar of grace first. John 4.4.
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The pinnacle of the chapter. He writes little children, you
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are from God and have overcome them, because greater is he who
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is in you than he who is in the world.
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There is so much packed into that one sentence.
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Let us break down the Greek syntax here because the sources
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lean heavily into how the original language illuminates
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the theology. Start with how He addresses
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them. The Greek word is tecnia.
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Tecnia translates to little children or dear children.
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It sounds very affectionate. It is a diminutive term and it
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is drenched in pastoral tenderness.
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You have to picture the Apostle John, an old man with a long
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white beard, writing to a congregation that is scared,
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confused and bleeding from a church split.
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They need a father right now. Right.
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John is dealing with strict, uncompromising, razor sharp
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doctrine. He just called the false
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teachers Antichrist, but his tone toward the true believers
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is that of a loving, protective, spiritual father.
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The church needs both, doesn't it?
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It needs the steal of sharp doctrine to keep the wolves out
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and the warmth of pastoral care to heal the sheep inside.
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Yes, you cannot have one without the other.
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He is reminding them of their identity before He reminds them
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of their victory. He is saying you are not
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spiritual orphans wandering aimlessly among predators.
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You are beloved members of God's household.
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Then he gives them their foundational reality.
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He says you are from God. The Greek phrase used there is
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ektutiu out of God. Back to EU, yes.
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Now I read that in English and it sounds like a nice sentiment.
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It sounds like a poetic way of saying God likes you or you're
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on God's team, but the sources are adamant that this is a
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massive theological statement. It is not poetry.
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It is a declaration of origin. The preposition IC denotes
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source. It speaks directly to the nature
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of salvation. How so?
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The new birth is entirely the sovereign decree in action of
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the father. Think about a physical infant
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being born. Right, nobody decides to be
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born. Precisely, a physical infant
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does not will itself into existence.
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It does not assist the doctor in the delivery room.
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It's just happening to them. It is completely passive in its
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own conception and birth. In the same way, the child of
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God is born by the sovereign will of God.
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This is the doctrine of monarchism, the teaching that
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God alone does the work of saving a dead Sinner.
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And this stands in sharp, uncompromising contrast to
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synergistic systems. Like Arminianism or Roman
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Catholicism maniacally? Yes, synergistic system suggests
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that man contributes his own autonomous free will to
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cooperate with God to initiate salvation.
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So it's like a partnership. Right.
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They argue that God casts a vote for you.
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The devil casts a vote against you and you cast the tie
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breaking vote. I've heard that analogy so many
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times. It is popular, but the
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scriptural witness here and throughout John's writings is
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that dead men cannot cast votes, Dead men cannot choose God.
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Because they are dead. God must miraculously impart
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life from himself into the dead soul.
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Your spiritual origin is exclusively divine.
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You are IK to Thieu out of God. So because of that divine
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origin, because God initiated the life, John can confidently
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move to the next phrase. He says you are from God and
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have overcome them. The Greek verb for overcome is
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nenkit. Nenkit, yes.
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The sources make a massive point about the tense of this verb.
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It is a perfect active indicative.
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Now, I'm not a Greek scholar, so break that down for me.
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Why does the tense of the verb matter so much here?
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Well, I mean, the perfect tense in Greek is just.
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It is a brilliant thing to look at.
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It is used to describe an action that was completely finished in
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the past, but it has an abiding, permanent, ongoing result in the
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present. So it's not a continuing action
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that might fail. No, John does not say to these
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terrified fusion believers you might overcome them.
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He does not say you will overcome them in the future if
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you try hard enough and read your Bible every day.
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He states it as a fact. He declares a completed
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objective fact. He says you have already
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definitively conquered them. The root word of Ninika Kate is
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Nikko. Which is where we get the name
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of the shoe brand Nike. Yes, in the ancient Greco Roman
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world, the goddess Nike was the personification of victory.
21:12
The word was heavily associated with total military conquest and
21:16
absolute athletic dominance. It wasn't just barely scraping
21:20
by. No, it means to Vanquish, to
21:22
subdue, to emerge as the undisputed champion.
21:26
John is telling these ordinary, frightened Christians that
21:30
because they held fast to the true biblical Christ, they have
21:34
already vanquished the false prophets.
21:36
That tense changes everything about how a Christian should
21:39
view their life. Think of it like a military
21:41
campaign. OK, when I picture spiritual
21:43
warfare I usually picture 2 armies colliding in a field and
21:47
the outcome is uncertain, like we are slogging it out in the
21:50
mud. Right.
21:50
A lot of people think that way. But that is wrong.
21:52
You are not fighting for the hill.
21:54
You are fighting from the hill after the flag has already been
21:57
permanently planted by your commanding officer.
21:59
That is a great picture. The citadel of your soul has
22:02
been irrevocably conquered by God.
22:04
The enemy has been expelled from the throne room of your heart.
22:08
Now, sure, the enemy remnants might hide in the woods.
22:11
They might occasionally throw rocks at the fortress wall.
22:14
They will definitely throw rocks.
22:15
Right. They might shout insults, but
22:18
the ownership of the fortress is prominently settled.
22:21
The deed is signed in blood. You are in a permanent,
22:24
unchangeable state of victory. That is a phenomenal way to
22:28
visualize it, and understanding that perfect tense destroys the
22:32
perpetual spiritual defeatism that plagues so many modern
22:36
believers. Yeah, that exhausting feeling of
22:38
never measuring up. Exactly.
22:40
So many Christians wake up every day feeling like they have to
22:43
win their salvation all over again.
22:45
They feel like they are one bad mood or one sin away from losing
22:48
the war. That sounds like a terrible way
22:50
to live. It is, but John says no, you are
22:53
not trying to win a victory. You are standing securely in a
22:55
victory that was already secured for you by someone else.
22:58
So we have this tender pastoral address, little children, we
23:02
have this divine monarchistic origin from God.
23:06
We have this completed perfect tense victory have overcome, and
23:10
then we hit the hinge of a whole verse, the fulcrum that
23:14
everything balances on the. Core of the matter.
23:16
Yes, it is the causal clause starting with the Greek word
23:19
hoti which translates to because, because greater is he
23:24
who is in you than he who is in the world.
23:26
This clause supports the entire weight of the verse.
23:29
It answers the obvious question, how can I possibly be a
23:32
conqueror when I feel so weak? Because they probably felt
23:34
terrified. John is grounding the victory
23:37
completely outside of the believer's independent ability.
23:40
The cause of your victory against false doctrine is not
23:43
your high IQ. It is not your seminary degree.
23:45
It's not your debate skills. Right.
23:47
It is not your emotional resilience or your willpower or
23:50
your pedigree. The cause is the invincible,
23:53
indwelling presence of Almighty God.
23:55
He sets up a direct comparison using the Greek word Maison,
23:58
which means greater he who is in you versus he who is in the
24:02
world. Let us define the players here.
24:04
Let's do that. He who is in you is clearly the
24:07
Holy Spirit taking up residence in the believer.
24:10
Who is he? Who is in the world?
24:12
That refers to Satan, whom Jesus called the ruler of this world
24:16
and Paul called the Prince of the power of the air.
24:19
The demonic forces animating the false teachers are basically
24:22
under his banner, but we have to define the world correctly here
24:26
to understand the threat. The Greek word is cosmos.
24:30
Right. And in John's writings, cosmos
24:32
rarely means the physical globe, the trees, the dirt and the
24:35
oceans. No, the physical creation is
24:37
good. God made it.
24:38
When John uses Cosmos in a negative sense, he is referring
24:42
to the invisible, highly organized system of evil,
24:45
rebellion and demonic philosophy that operates in active
24:48
hostility toward God. Like the cultural atmosphere.
24:51
Yes, it is the world's value system.
24:53
It is the culture's definition of success, morality and truth
24:56
that fundamentally rejects the Creator.
24:59
Satan is the usuran ruler of this rebellious cosmos.
25:02
It. Feels like there is a trap here
25:04
though for the average Christian reading this.
25:06
When people hear about the Holy Spirit versus Satan, they
25:09
instinctively picture an arm wrestling match.
25:12
Like a comic book battle. Yeah, like a cosmic struggle.
25:15
We watch too many movies. We think it is a yin Yang
25:17
scenario, The light side of the Force versus the dark side of
25:20
the Force 2 equal opposing forces battling it out for
25:24
supremacy. And we are just hoping the good
25:26
guy wins. We must reject that dualism
25:29
entirely. It is a Pagan concept, not a
25:32
biblical one. How so?
25:33
It is not an arm wrestling match.
25:35
The text says greater is he, but that word greater is almost an
25:39
understatement. Satan is a created being.
25:42
He is an Angel. He is finite.
25:44
He's not God's evil. Not even close.
25:46
He is limited in space and time, He is not omniscient, He is not
25:50
omnipresent, and he is an already defeated creature.
25:53
God, on the other hand, is the uncreated, infinite, omnipotent,
25:57
sovereign creator of the universe.
25:59
So it's not not a fair fight. The contrast is absolutely
26:02
asymmetrical. It is not a fair fight.
26:04
The Holy Spirit is infinitely superior.
26:06
Satan is a lion on a chain, and God holds the leash.
26:09
Hold on, let me push back on that for a second, because I am
26:11
listening to this and I hear you say Satan is a defeated creature
26:15
on a leash. But if I turn on the news, or if
26:19
I look at the moral collapse of our culture, or if I look at my
26:22
own struggles with sin, it does not look like Satan is on a
26:25
leash. I get that.
26:27
Why does the Cosmos seem to be winning so often if the Holy
26:30
Spirit is infinitely greater? Why is my life and the life of
26:34
the Church so incredibly hard right now?
26:37
That is the most natural question to ask.
26:40
The reason it feels like the cosmos is winning is twofold.
26:43
First, God in His sovereign wisdom has allowed the cosmos to
26:47
continue operating for a set period of time to fulfill His
26:50
redemptive purposes, gathering His elect from every nation.
26:53
So there is a timeline. Yes, the sentence has been
26:56
passed, but the execution is delayed. 2nd, we often mistake
27:00
the noise of the enemy for the victory of the enemy.
27:02
Oh, that's a good point. A chained dog barks the loudest.
27:04
The cosmos is loud, it is flashy, and it controls the
27:07
temporal levers of cultural strength.
27:11
The media, the universities, the governments.
27:12
They hold the microphones. Right, but it has absolutely no
27:16
capacity to snatch a single soul out of the hand of Christ.
27:19
The hardship you feel is the friction of being an alien
27:22
citizen of heaven living in a hostile temporary Kingdom.
27:26
And this reality, the fact that the cosmos is a hostile system
27:29
of rebellion, has massive application for how we do church
27:33
today, doesn't it? The sources point out that
27:36
mimicking the cosmos is essentially courting the
27:38
Antichrist spirit. It is a huge indictment on
27:41
modern evangelical methodology. This text argues forcefully
27:45
against pragmatic seeker, sensitive models and the
27:49
prosperity gospel. How does that connect?
27:51
Think about the logic. If the cosmos is an organized
27:53
system of demonic rebellion against God, why in the world
27:56
would the Church adopt the manipulative marketing methods
27:59
of the secular business world to fill its buildings?
28:01
Right. Why would we treat Jesus like a
28:04
product to be sold and the congregation like consumers to
28:07
be pleased? Spot on.
28:08
Why would we soften the hard edges of biblical doctrine to
28:12
avoid offending a culture that hates God?
28:14
To do so is to rely on the flesh.
28:16
It is to entertain the cosmos. We are just inviting the world
28:19
in. When a pastor reads management
28:21
books instead of the epistles to figure out how to lead his
28:24
flock, he is saying that the methods of the world are more
28:27
effective than the foolishness of preaching.
28:30
That's a devastating critique. We must rely on the infinitely
28:33
greater work of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit operates
28:36
exclusively through the unapologetic, unvarnished
28:40
preaching of the inherent Word. Here's where it gets really
28:43
interesting. We have been talking about 1st
28:45
century Ephesus fighting Cerinthian ISM, but the devil
28:49
does not retire, he just rebrands.
28:52
He just changed the label on the bottle.
28:54
Yeah, we fight modern ideologies that act as the exact same
28:58
spirit of Antichrist today. They carry the same DNA as
29:01
Cerinthus the sources layout specific targets that are
29:05
currently ravaging the church. Let us walk through these.
29:07
Yes, the text details several modern manifestations of this
29:11
Antichrist spirit. First, we have cults like
29:13
Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses.
29:15
Right now many people think of them as just different
29:17
denominations of Christianity because they use the name Jesus
29:20
and carry Bibles, but we must understand them as non Christian
29:24
religions. Why?
29:25
I mean, to the average person on the street they sound Christian.
29:28
Because they explicitly deny the Orthodox Trinity and the eternal
29:31
deity of Jesus Christ. Jehovah's Witnesses teach that
29:35
Jesus is the Archangel Michael, a created being.
29:38
Not eternal God. Right.
29:40
Mormonism teaches that Jesus is the spirit brother of Lucifer
29:43
who attained godhood. They deny that the eternal God
29:46
took on human flesh to provide an infinite atonement.
29:49
It's the same error as Surinthus, just tweaked.
29:52
They are just modern variations of the same Christological
29:55
errors John was fighting. They failed a test of First John
29:58
4.2. Then you have liberal theology,
30:01
which might be the most insidious because it operates
30:03
from within mainstream seminaries and pulpits.
30:06
Liberal theology acts as an acid, a solvent, eating away at
30:11
the very fabric of the text. Jay Gresham Mason wrote a famous
30:14
book a century ago pointing out that liberalism is not
30:17
Christianity. It is a completely different
30:19
religion using Christian vocabulary.
30:21
Because they reject the miraculous, right?
30:23
Yes, liberalism denies biblical inerrancy, turning the inspired
30:28
text into mere human reflections on the divine.
30:31
It denies the virgin birth. It denies the substitutionary
30:34
atonement, calling it divine child abuse.
30:37
I've heard that phrase. It's awful.
30:39
And critically, it denies the literal, physical, bodily
30:42
resurrection of Jesus, reducing it to a metaphor for spiritual
30:46
renewal or springtime. So they strip away the physical
30:48
reality. It guts the faith of its
30:51
historical, miraculous physical reality.
30:53
It is pure agnosticism. The source has also mentioned
30:56
evolutionary dogma and critical race theory as manifestations of
30:59
the world system. Let us look at those because
31:01
those are flashpoints. How does evolutionary dogma
31:04
function as an Antichrist philosophy?
31:07
It functions as an Antichrist philosophy because it
31:09
fundamentally alters the biblical narrative of creation,
31:12
fall, and redemption. By reducing man to a highly
31:15
evolved animal and advanced ape, it erases the reality that
31:19
humanity is uniquely made in the image of God.
31:21
So it destroys the starting point.
31:23
Yes. If there was no historical atom
31:26
and no historical fall into sin, then the entire theological
31:30
premise of the Apostle Paul in Romans 5 that Christ is the
31:33
second Adam who comes to undo the curse of the first Adam,
31:37
well, it collapses entirely. That makes sense.
31:39
If death is just a natural mechanism of evolution that has
31:42
been around for millions of years, rather than the penalty
31:45
for human rebellion, then the cross loses its meaning.
31:49
And regarding critical race theory, this is everywhere in
31:52
corporate HR departments, universities and sadly, many
31:56
churches. The source text critiques CRT
31:58
strictly theologically. The issue is that CRT forces a
32:02
framework that divides the body of Christ along sociological
32:05
lines of oppressor and oppressed based entirely on immutable
32:09
characteristics like skin color. It creates permanent categories.
32:12
Right. It teaches that guilt is
32:14
inherited systemically rather than individually.
32:17
This framework entirely bypasses the biblical categories of human
32:20
depravity. The Bible says all have sinned.
32:22
So it offers a different diagnosis of the human problem.
32:25
And a different solution. CRT bypasses biblical repentance
32:29
and the unifying blood of the cross.
32:32
In Galatians, Paul says that in Christ there is neither Jew nor
32:35
Greek, slave nor free, but all are one.
32:38
Ideologies that seek to permanently stratify the Church
32:41
based on earthly identities are speaking the language of the
32:45
cosmos. OK, I have to push back here.
32:47
Again, go for it. I hear you laying out these
32:49
categories, but how is a modern believer, a guy who works 40
32:53
hours a week and is just trying to raise his kids, supposed to
32:57
recognize these ideologies in real time?
32:59
It is difficult. I mean, Sorrentus running into a
33:01
bathhouse screaming of the spirit leaving Jesus is obvious.
33:04
A guy knocking on my door with a name tag denying the Trinity is
33:07
obvious, sure. But these modern frameworks do
33:10
not introduce themselves as demonic.
33:12
They do not wear red pitchforks. They are packaged to look
33:15
incredibly appealing. They look like academic
33:18
consensus. They look like empathy.
33:19
They really do they. Look like social justice and
33:21
compassion for the marginalized. How do you spot the wolf when
33:25
the sheep's clothing is tailor made by an Ivy League
33:27
university? That is the genius of the enemy,
33:30
right? He masquerades as an Angel of
33:31
light. You spot it by applying John's
33:35
rigorous doctrinal test, but you have to know how to ask the
33:38
primary diagnostic question beneath the surface.
33:41
You do not just look at their stated intentions, you look at
33:44
their mechanics. Does this philosophy, this
33:47
framework, elevate the biblical Christ as the sole sufficient
33:51
Savior, or does it bypass him? Does it rely on human effort,
33:55
government intervention, or worldly sociology to ultimately
33:58
solve the human condition? Or does it point exclusively to
34:02
the cross? So it is about identifying the
34:04
proposed savior. Yes.
34:06
Any system that redefines sin as a social construct, any system
34:09
that replaces biblical repentance with self affirmation
34:12
or perpetual guilt tripping, or any system that suggests that
34:15
humanity score problem is something other than cosmic
34:18
rebellion against a holy God is speaking the language of the
34:21
cosmos. It's offering a false cure.
34:23
If a philosophy tells you that the solution to human suffering
34:26
is found within yourself or within a political party, rather
34:29
than in the bleeding wounds of the God man, it is a doctrine of
34:33
demons. It is that simple and it is that
34:35
strict. It always comes back to Christ,
34:37
which leads us into the Christological guarantee, our
34:41
victory in first John 4.4. The fact that we have overcome
34:44
them is not something we generated.
34:46
We did not manifest this victory.
34:48
It is entirely derivative of Christ's victory.
34:51
We are just standing in His shadow.
34:53
Yes, the apostle John was in the upper room when Jesus spoke the
34:57
words recorded in John 16.33. Jesus looked at his terrified
35:02
disciples who were about to watch him be crucified, and he
35:04
said in the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I
35:08
have overcome the world. Take heart I have overcome.
35:11
Notice the perfect tense there too.
35:13
I have overcome. Christ's historical physical
35:15
victory at the cross and the empty tomb is the objective
35:18
reality. Our victory in First John 4.4 is
35:21
simply the subjective application of His finished work
35:24
to our lives. So the Spirit brings Christ's
35:26
victory to us. The Holy Spirit who dwells in US
35:28
is the Spirit of Christ sent specifically to apply the
35:32
benefits of that redemption. The sources break this down
35:34
beautifully, using the classic theological framework of the
35:37
threefold office of Christ, prophet, priest, and king.
35:41
This is a framework that Reformed thinkers love to use to
35:44
categorize how Jesus operates. Let us examine each of those in
35:48
light of first John 4.4. How does this verse point to
35:53
Christ as our ultimate prophet? Well, as Prophet Christ's role
35:56
is to speak the absolute truth of God, His word exposes the
36:00
lies of the Antichrist spirits. False prophets speak from the
36:04
world, and the world listens to them.
36:06
They tickle people's ears, right?
36:08
But Christ reveals the Father truthfully.
36:10
The Apostolic testimony, our New Testament is the authorized
36:14
prophetic witness to the Incarnate Son.
36:17
When the Holy Spirit dwells in you, He acts as an internal
36:20
illuminator, keeping you tethered to that prophetic word.
36:23
He makes the word come alive. He gives you the capacity to
36:25
hear the Shepherd's voice and to recognize the counterfeit
36:28
teachings of the culture as the poison they are.
36:30
And as our priest, what does his priesthood have to do with the
36:34
Holy Spirit living inside a believer?
36:36
Everything as our great High Priest, Christ did not just
36:40
offer a sacrifice, He offered Himself as the perfect,
36:43
unblemished substitutionary atonement.
36:46
He fully satisfied the infinite wrath of God on our behalf.
36:49
OK, but how does that connect to the Spirit in dwelling us?
36:53
Now we have to understand the holiness of God.
36:55
A holy, pristine God cannot dwell in a filthy, unholy
36:59
vessel. If the Holy Spirit entered A
37:01
sinful human being without a blood covering, that person
37:04
would be instantly consumed by God's holiness.
37:07
Because God is a consuming fire. Yes, it is only because
37:10
believers are watched in the blood and clothed in the imputed
37:13
perfect reichiesness of Christ that the Holy Spirit can safely
37:16
take up residence within them. Christ's priestly work cleans
37:20
the temple so the Spirit can inhabit it.
37:22
That is incredible, I never thought about it like that.
37:25
The blood makes the indwelling safe.
37:27
It does. And finally, as our king.
37:29
As the sovereign king, Christ did not just die of victim's
37:32
death. Colossians 2 tells us that He
37:34
publicly disarmed the rulers and authorities at the cross.
37:37
He triumphed over them. He won the war.
37:40
He judged the ruler of this world.
37:41
He crushed the serpent's head. The indwelling Holy Spirit
37:45
applies that royal kingly triumph to your daily life,
37:48
guarding you, the citizen of His Kingdom, from fatal soul
37:52
destroying deception. There's also a really
37:55
fascinating dispensational note in the sources regarding the
37:58
Holy Spirit. And when I say dispensational, I
38:00
just mean looking at how God administers his plan across
38:04
different eras of redemptive history.
38:06
The way the Holy Spirit operates in the life of a believer right
38:09
now is fundamentally distinct from how he operated in the Old
38:13
Testament. Yes, there is a massive
38:15
redemptive historical shift that occurs at Pentecost.
38:18
In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God came upon individuals for
38:21
specific temporary tasks or seasons.
38:23
Like who? Think of Samson receiving
38:25
supernatural physical strength to defeat the Philistines, or
38:28
King Saul receiving the Spirit to prophecy and then the Spirit
38:31
departing from. Him.
38:32
Oh, right, the Spirit actually left Saul.
38:34
Yes, or David after his sin with Bathsheba agonizingly praying in
38:39
Psalm 51. Take not your Holy Spirit from
38:42
me. The Spirit's presence was often
38:43
selective and temporary. But today, under the new
38:46
covenant, it is different. It is radically different in the
38:49
church age. The Spirit permanently indwells
38:52
every single born again believer.
38:55
From the moment of regeneration until glorification.
38:58
He takes up permanent residence. He is the seal the down payment
39:02
of our future inheritance. He doesn't leave when we mess
39:04
up. He does not leave when you sin,
39:06
He grieves when you sin, which is actually proof he is still
39:09
there. Because of this permanent,
39:11
invincible indwelling, the Church is a distinct heavenly
39:14
people equipped for a totally different kind of warfare.
39:17
If we connect this to the bigger picture, this immense soaring
39:20
theology of divine origins, perfect tense victories and
39:24
invincible indwelling, it demands a specific boots on the
39:27
ground response from us today. It has to.
39:29
Doctrine is not meant to sit in a dusty textbook.
39:32
Doctrine must terminate an application.
39:34
Dead orthodoxy, where you have all the right answers but no
39:37
life helps absolutely no one. Spot on.
39:40
Theology is highly practical. The first major application the
39:43
sources draw out from this text is the urgent need for fearless
39:47
orthodoxy in the modern Church. Christians must stop
39:50
prioritizing niceness over truth.
39:53
Say to the end, because I think that is the idol of the modern
39:56
Western church. Niceness.
39:58
It absolutely is. The surrounding culture, and
40:01
frankly a large swath of broad evangelicalism, prizes dialogue
40:06
over dogma. They want a seat at the table.
40:09
They want to be liked. They want to be viewed as
40:11
respectable by the world's academic and social elites.
40:14
But believers are called to stand resolute on the inerrant
40:18
word, if you understand first. John 4.4 You realize there is no
40:22
room for cowardice. We don't need to apologize for
40:24
what the Bible says. You must refuse to cower before
40:27
cultural elites, progressive politicians, or liberal
40:30
scholars. If the invincible Creator God
40:33
dwells within your chest, who are you afraid of?
40:35
Why are you watering down the biblical sexual ethic to please
40:38
people who hate your king? Fearless orthodoxy means
40:41
speaking the truth in love, but never compromising the truth to
40:44
keep the peace. The text also draws out a
40:47
specific pointed duty regarding complementarianism.
40:51
It calls on men to step up and act as a theological guardians
40:55
of their homes. It is a vital non negotiable
40:58
call. The spirit of Antichrist, the
41:00
cosmos is not just out in the world, it is trying to seep
41:04
under the doors of your house. Through our phones, our TV's.
41:07
It seeks to devour your family through digital media, secular
41:10
education, compromised churches and endless entertainment.
41:14
Men are called by God to be the watchman on the wall.
41:17
To stand guard. They are called to shut the door
41:20
to those worldly philosophies, actively leading their wives and
41:24
children in the truth of Scripture, washing them in the
41:26
Word. You cannot outsource this
41:28
spiritual protection of your children to a youth pastor.
41:31
No, you can't. It is an active, defensive and
41:33
offensive posture against the cosmos.
41:36
You have to know what your kids are watching, what they are
41:38
reading, and you have to teach them how to spot the Antichrist
41:40
spirit. And then there is a sharp,
41:43
unyielding call for repentance for the listener right now,
41:47
wherever you are driving in your car or sitting at your desk, who
41:50
might be flirting with the cosmos.
41:51
Yes, this requires honest self examination.
41:56
If you are consuming New Age media, if you are checking
41:59
horoscopes, if you are dabbling in the Enneagram as a source of
42:03
spiritual identity, if you are practicing yoga with an aim to
42:06
empty your mind, or if you are softening biblical doctrine to
42:10
appear respectable to your unsaved friends, you are playing
42:13
with fire. That hits close to home for a
42:15
lot of people. If you are adopting worldly
42:18
corporate methods to run your ministry, you are flirting with
42:21
the spirit of Antichrist. The call of First John 4.4 is to
42:25
repent, sever ties with the cosmos, stop trying to borrow
42:29
the world's strength, and rely totally on the Holy Spirit.
42:32
I love the imagery of the sources bring in from the great
42:35
19th century preacher Charles Spurgeon.
42:37
As we wrap this up, Spurgeon painted a picture of a trembling
42:40
believer. It is a beautiful picture.
42:42
You might be listening to this and feeling incredibly frail.
42:45
You might feel completely overwhelmed by the academic
42:47
weight of the culture, the hostility of the political
42:49
landscape, or just the chaotic mess of your own personal
42:52
struggles with sin. You feel like a mouse.
42:54
Exactly. You feel like a mouse.
42:56
But Spurgeon says, remember, the lion of the tribe of Judah
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dwells within your breast. The spirit of the living God has
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made your frail heart his prominent temple.
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But I have to ask, how does a trembling St. practically access
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that courage? Let us say it's a Tuesday
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morning at the office. The culture is screaming at
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them. They are facing pressure to
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compromise on a policy that violates scripture.
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How do they access the lion? You do not access it by looking
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inward to find a reservoir of self esteem.
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You access it by preaching the objective truth of first John
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4.4 to yourself before the world has a chance to preach its lies
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to you. Preach it to yourself.
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When you feel the panic rising on that Tuesday morning, you
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stop and you look upward to the completed work of Christ.
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You recognize the objective, unchangeable fact of the
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indwelling Spirit. Remind yourself of what is true.
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Find yourself out loud. My origin is divine, My victory
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was already accomplished 2000 years ago on a Roman cross, and
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my protector is infinite. You plant your feet firmly on
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the closed Canon of Scripture. You refuse to yield an inch of
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doctrinal ground, and you trust that the God who regenerated you
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will preserve you to the very end.
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So we have covered massive ground.
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Today we looked at the early church crisis in Ephesus, facing
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down the deadly heresies of Cerinthus we did.
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We looked at the absolute necessity of testing the spirits
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against the objective standard of Scripture.
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We jumped deep into the grammar of grace, the divine origin of
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the believer, born out of God, not by human will.
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Monarchism in action. Yes, we looked at the
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definitive, perfect, tense victory.
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The flag is planted, the citadel is secure.
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And we looked at the invincible indweller, the Spirit of Christ,
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who is infinitely greater than the defeated ruler of this
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world. The overarching truth that holds
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all of this together is that God's sovereign grace ensures
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the final preservation of his people.
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The false prophets will continue to multiply.
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The culture will rage. The statistics might look grim.
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They really do. But the true flock, the ones who
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hold fast to the biblical Christ, are eternally secure.
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Which leaves us with a final thought for you to Mull over as
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you go back to your day. The text we studied explicitly
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states the neutrality is an illusion.
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You're either from God or you are from the world.
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There is no middle ground, no Demilitarized Zone.
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You. Can't straddle the fence.
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You cannot have one foot in the Kingdom and 1 foot in the cosmos
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if you truly view your spiritual standing as an already completed
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victory. How does that entirely shift the
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way you read the Daily News tomorrow morning?
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How does it change the way you consume Entertainment Tonight?
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How does it change the way you face a cultural crisis at your
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workplace? Does the shattered X-ray machine
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of spiritual deception still scare you?
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Or do you implicitly trust the Great Physician who has already
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permanently conquered the disease?
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Thank you for joining us for this deep dive.