Well, good morning again everyone.
Let's turn to the letter of 1 John chapter 5 for one more week this
week. And as promised, as I've been
talking about for months already, the final sermon regarding idols
is among us. And I've labored over exactly
where to approach these things because There is some context
here, but ultimately there are some pastoral observations. Pastoral observations. And it's
not contemporary observations, it's lifelong observations. If
I were to say, and I've asked this question already in jest,
what are the idols in your life? You probably would hit some of
them. If I were to help us, ask us to all define idols, we'd
all get very close to what it means to have an idol in one's
life. None of us are worshiping graven images or feeding statues
or bowing down to any particular thing that we would call a god
or a divine being, sans maybe the little tiny angels on the
rear view mirror. But ultimately, we all have idols.
We are by nature idolaters. We are by nature opposed to sovereignty. We are by nature not humble.
But God in his mercy has caused us to be born again. He's caused us to be born again
to a living hope and we have Several families who have had
children and others who are waiting children and brother Jesse and
Brooke, they're awaiting their fourth child. I had to count
there for a minute. And the one thing that's cool
about birth is that it comes when it comes. And in the greatest
of medical advances, you can induce, do all sorts of things,
but short of just taking the child through surgery, nothing
can cause that child to come until it is supposed to. Nothing. That child is dormant in its
birth. It instinctively does that which
it has been coded to do in its DNA by its creator. That even when a child is birthed
and turned the wrong direction, that child head turns back. because it has to turn back to
clear the birth canal. It's crazy, isn't it? The way
the Lord has created the propagation of the human race is a small
tiny little picture of the essence in which he creates his church.
Mysterious. Without its help. Without its
will. Jesus Christ, the Son, God the
Father, God the Spirit, our God, before the foundations of the
world, eternally purposed and decreed to create a people for
His glory. And whenever He chose, and whenever
is a poor word, because there's no such thing as whenever in
eternity. In the beginning, God said, let
there be light, and there was. So that He would be glorified
in creating a people for Himself. This is the tiny little meta-narrative
of scripture. This is it. And ever since before
that, there has been idolatry. Idolatry is first seen in the
brief. I had one of my students Tuesday
ask me about, you know, what all are we supposed to know about
angels? I said, only what the Bible teaches us and their proper
place. In medical school, they don't spend a whole bunch of
hours on band-aids and syringes. Those are just tools of the trade.
Angels are tools of God, messengers for his purpose. But we do see
the fall of the great bright and morning star, the one whose
very existence exuded the reflection of the glory of his creator.
His name is Lucifer, and he said in his heart, I should share
in that. I should share in that, look
at myself. It's funny how when you're positing things and you're
thinking through things, and I talk to myself a lot internally,
and sometimes externally. And I said to myself yesterday,
and then I told three other people as I talked throughout the day,
if I wanted to see the vilest thing in my life, I should look
in the mirror. If I wanna see the most, the
epitome of evil as it contains to my personal life, I should
look in the mirror. I should stop looking and thinking
about all these people who are doing bad things and wicked things
and aggravating things and frustrating things and sinful things. Why
are these people like this? They're so wrong, they're so
evil, they're so bad. I look in the mirror and I go,
thank you God I'm not like them. Don't be like that, beloved.
Let's not go there. But if you want to see the most
glorious and the most beautiful, if you want to see the the truest
of righteousness, you have to look at the face of Christ. You
have to look at the face of Christ. Christ and his perfection. In his humanity, even and specifically,
is beautiful, is glorious. How he spoke, how he moved, how
he thought, how he worked, how he operated, how he responded,
how he reacted, what he desired. And I'm waiting for the day.
I'm waiting for the day of glory as some of us were talking on
Wednesday night. We can't fathom in the deepest sense of of the
meaning of meditating on the idea of being glorified without
sin, having to just look at a sunset without sin. What is it we cannot say? We cannot say because it is unimaginable. It is unimaginable. Yet it is
all about Christ. It's all about Christ. And beloved,
I'm sad to say that on one side I'm sad to say, on the other
side I'm joyful. I'm sad to say that our world is eat up with
idols and many of them have been called Christ. Many of our friends and relatives
and associates, many of our ministry partners, are guilty of being
idolaters, not just in the sense that I've been talking about,
you know, generally and by nature, but I mean spiritually. In their
religion, in their confidence, in their assurance, in their
conditions, in their judgments. And so I say all of this because
I want to remind you, I've been talking about this for months. I've been
talking about this before We even got to chapter four. Keep
yourself from idols. So while this teaching is going
to sound very much reactive to present day circumstances for
some of us, it is not pointing preaching to deal with the issues
at hand. It is just divine coincidence. Why? I don't even want to say
the word coincidence. Because nothing has changed since
the Garden of Eden concerning humanity. Nothing has changed
about the countenance of Eve and Adam and the countenance
of James Tippins and the rest of us sitting here and all of
the church who are watching live on Facebook or wherever. Nothing. We're all in the same boat being
driven one way by our depravity and being snatched and pulled
another way by the Spirit of God. And it is a tug of war in
which the Lord will win. I want you to be clear of that.
We're really not fighting against the Lord. We're fighting against
ourselves. Christ has already won. He is the victor who has
overcome the world. And who is it that overcomes
the world except the one who believes in Jesus Christ who
overcomes the world? How is it that we overcome the
world? By faith in Christ Jesus. And see, here's the problem.
I used to say, and I've said this for a long time since I
was a little boy in ministry. When I say little boy, I'm talking
about in my 20s. That as a shepherd, the one thing
that God the Spirit has always imparted in my heart, yes, I
said imparted, he put it there through the Spirit, is that I
love you. And that at a fault, I will give
everything I have away, sinfully sometimes for the sake of the
sheep. And then sometimes I've prided
myself on that. I'm a pretty good shepherd. I'm not a good
shepherd. I'm a horrible under shepherd. Christ is the good
shepherd. And as long as we point to Him
and rest in Him, our joy is full. So I've always said this, is
that one of the greatest tests of a shepherd, as he looks at
his flock, and notice I'm saying this all in the secondary sense.
We're all sheep, and I'm an under shepherd, Christ is a shepherd.
But in my role as an elder overseer, what I'm looking for is your
joy. I'm not looking for your behavior.
I'm not looking for your language. I'm not looking for your lusts.
I'm not looking to see all these things flipping and changing.
I'm looking for your joy. That's what I wanna see. And
I wanna keep showing you Christ and teaching you through the
languages of the apostles who wrote by Christ so that your
joy may be full in Christ because I know that any other therapeutic
idea will cease to bring the fullness of joy. Any other practical
idea? Though disciplines can keep us
safe in the boundaries of the gospel and keep us safe in the
context of eliminating consequences that will surely destroy our
joy, ultimately our joy is found in the gospel. And beloved, the
greatest, and you might not believe this, but it is true, the greatest
attack against the joy of the saints is idolatry. Well no, it's my neighbor always
aggravating me. You worship the idol of peace. You worship the idol of civility.
You worship the idol of organization. You worship the idol of a balanced
checkbook. You worship the idol of ironed
clothes, painted cars, fishing lures, clean carports, Have I hit them
yet? See, these are silly things. You worship the idol of getting
things done. I've been trying my entire life
to have a weekend that I didn't have something to do. What about
you? The only way to do that is go
to a hotel and lie to yourself. You got nothing to do. I don't even have to pick up
that towel. You can't throw towels on the ground, okay? You just
don't do that. It causes mold in the carpet,
all right? Tip there. You can spray it with Lysol,
then throw it on the ground, but not before. I have many idols. But see, it is funny in that
practical sense, but it's not funny when we idolize things
at the cost of Christ. So what is an idol? An idol is
anything, and I'm going to say it simply, anything that purposes
to stand adjacent or against the joy of Christ. The joy of Christ. John wrote
this letter so that the joy of the saints would be full. Now
let me ask you a question. Is the joy of Christ subject
to the lack of Hmm. Suffering. No. The joy of Christ is coupled
with suffering. Is the joy of Christ only there
and prominent and powerful and present when all God's people
are getting along? No, because all of God's people
are not always going to get along. If we are truly individuals,
each a member of the body, there is always going to be somebody
who's aggravating somebody. The question is, is the joy of
the Lord enough to see the resolution? It's the same thing with marriage.
Well if you just be like this and if you do that and if you
change this then I'll be happy. Well go ahead and divorce. Go ahead and leave. Don't get
married to start with. If you put that kind of condition
on a covenant relationship, you're dumb to think it's going to be
good. It's not going to be good. You
know I really would like this to change. Sorry. Because chances are the things
that we want to change are not going to change. And if those
changes are prescriptive to our unity and our union and our joy,
then thank God he doesn't work that way. The conditions of our
eternal life are met by the Lord himself. The contract and the
requirements of redemption, God put forth and God answered. Christ answered. It is a finished
work. This is the proclamation of the
good news, beloved. It's good news unto your joy
so that when all the bad news piles up, it's like a little
bit of dust the day after you clean. Look at that dust, pollen. Go to the car wash, drive home,
it's green, yellow, whatever color you think it is. It's just
going to be there. There's always going to be something
there. The question is, are we worshipping the Christ of Scripture
or are we worshipping the idols of our own existence and relating
them to Christ? John says, I write these things
that our joy may be complete. That we know that God is love
and God is light and in the righteousness of Christ we have perfect life. And in our worship of Christ,
we are to 100% love one another with a sacrificial love. You
know what the sacrificial love, and I say I've already preached
all this stuff. A sacrificial love does not require its own
way. A sacrificial love never gets
a high blood pressure or a heart rate increase. If your heart starts beating
and you feel flustered, you should keep your mouth shut. I should
keep my mouth shut. Slow to speak is what love does. Silence is what humility does. But where is the joy truly found
in Christ? How do we have it? We are resting. We're resting. When do we rest? Now I'm not talking about pass
out because we're so dang tired we can't keep going. No, when
do we rest? We rest when everything's okay.
We rest when everything's finished. We rest when, you know what?
That was a good meal, good service. I didn't sleep much last night.
Let me just sit here and fellowship with y'all for a few minutes.
I mean, that's gonna be on my tombstone. Daddy slept well. After mealtime, or when we were
talking to him, Wherever. Don't sleep well at night, but
I sleep well any other time. I could sit there and go straight
to sleep. Wouldn't hurt my feelings one
bit. It'd hurt yours. Because it's rude. But see, we rest. When everything
is okay, we're able to rest. That's the definition of it.
Rest. It's okay. You survived the car
wreck. I know you're in a body cast
and you can't see out of your left eye. It's okay. Just rest. The doctors have created the
opportunity for your body to heal. You just need to rest.
When it comes to spiritual rest, we need to learn that it surrounds
us because we are in the peace of God that surpasses our noggins. See, the peace of Christ surpasses
all understanding. What understanding? All of it.
Then there was no logical way that we sit down and go, okay,
that's how the peace of God works. We don't put it down on paper
and parse it out to write a book about it. We just sit in it and
go, I don't know. That's it. So there you go, kids.
There's the deepest theological thing you will ever learn in
the most academic way it will ever be taught. So when you go
to college and you want to talk about the Resurrection, you say,
I don't know. I mean, that's what you do. And they'll understand this. Are you trying to imitate Peppa
Pig's dad? What is it going on here? It doesn't matter. What's going on here is that
Christ is our rest. He is our peace. He is our Passover. Go put the blood on your, go
put the blood on your doors. And just sit around and rest.
Let God do his thing. You know how, what would James
Tippins be like in ancient Egypt during the Passover? Oh cuz,
half of us in here would be ready and locked. We'd be out on the
roof cuz. We got blood everywhere, I got
blood on me. And just in case them angels can't see it, we
artilleried. You can be vigilant to the point
of idolatry. You can be fearful to the point
of idolatry. And the great thing is, is I
could sit here and go on for another hour. I could just talk
about these things for another hour and I could keep going and
talk about every idol that I know exists in my life and eventually
I will hit every one of you. Why? Because we all share the
same thing. They may look different, smell different, and dress different,
but they're all the same. They're all the same. But that
would not be good preaching. Because see, the point of John
is he says, Beloved little children, look what he says in verse 21.
Keep yourselves from idols. Now we've already put that in
context, right? We've already seen the context. We're going
to go to the context again. We're going to show what John is talking about, but
we're also going to understand that it is very easy for the
preacher to sit here and beat the sheep about their idols and
even self-deprecate in false humility that he has them too.
I mean, you know, and everybody just laughs and goes home and
like, well, I'll tell you what, thank God for his mercy. That
is a cavalier, unspiritual attitude. When we see idols, we ought to
weep. but we ought to do it with joy. And when I say weep, my weeping
is not like your weeping. My weeping used to be unbearable, carried with me 24
hours a day, dream my burdens, live my burdens constantly. I
could watch a movie without Burdens, burdens, burdens and the Lord
broke my brain and broke that out of me by His mercy because
I was not effective in the faith. So now, my weeping is a good
awareness of what could be. Shakes my soul and I rejoice
in it. The good thing is I don't worship
the idol of my feelings. And I don't gauge the promises
of God by my understanding of how I feel concerning them. And
that's something that we'll talk about today. Keep yourself from
idols is to stop even worrying about the idol of idolatry. Let
me say that again. Keep yourself from idols includes
worrying about the idol of idolatry. Do you know anything that you
spend your time on? is a potential idol. Anything
that you labor over is a potential idol. Anything that causes you
not to rest in Christ or anything that you and I do that is not
for the glory of Christ and brings us to the place where we can
feel confident before Christ, if it takes away from that, it
is an idol. It is an idol. Keep ourselves from idols. So
good preaching doesn't come here and deal with the idols and let
everybody leave hoping they get it straight. Good preaching shows
you that if you leave here worrying about idols in your life rather
than glorying in the rest of the gospel of free and sovereign
grace, you are still an idolater. Or you're still being an idolater,
you see? We have to rest in the sovereignty
of God. And it is not granted to us permanently
to always rest. It is not granted to us permanently
to always know all the implications and the nuances of doctrine. Beloved, there are hundreds and
hundreds of doctrines that I have not thought about in ten years.
I don't have time. There are things that you might
know today that you won't think about for a long, long time. Idolatry is one of them. When's
the last time you sat down and thought about the doctrine of
idols? And when you do, you go to Ezekiel, don't you? Or like
I read out of Isaiah 6 today, before the service started, or
at the start of our service. Isaiah 6, the Lord speaks to
Isaiah, and he says he's going to destroy every idolater. He's going to mow them over,
and when the stumps are left on the ground, he's going to
mow them over too. He's not just going to cut it down to regrow
it. He's going to dig it up. He's not going to allow these
people to hear the gospel. He's not going to allow them
to be healed. He's going to destroy them because
they are idol worshipers in a true sense. Well, beloved, Christ
died for idolatry for his people. He's already paid the penalty
of idolatry. So there is no condemnation in
your life when you see idols in your life. Now your joy. But why do I still love these
things? Because you're in your flesh. How can I be led by the Spirit?
Love your brothers and sisters. Sacrificially. You don't get
your words. You don't get your way. You don't
get your conditions. You don't get what you want.
You give who you are for what they need. What do they need? Not your expertise. Not your
power, not your strength, your sacrifice. This is the thing
that is hard for us because we like to hold fast to the doctrines
of the gospel and what we would call historically the doctrines
of grace and what we would say about the doctrines of Christ.
But the doctrines of grace in Christ are inclusive of the instruction
of Christ to his people to live together as worshipers loving
one another through which and only through which we love him. I used to do this at conferences.
Everybody stand up if you love the Lord. And everybody's like,
yeah, especially college kids. Now sit down if you're aggravated
with any other person in the world. And there was always a
couple of knuckleheads that would stay standing. Well, you don't love the Lord
then. If you're not loving your neighbor, See how mistaken we
are, we think love is how we feel, and all that goody two-shoe
stuff in our bellies. No, love is what we do. And that's what John's been teaching.
This is just review, beloved. Keep yourself from idols. There
are idols that have to do with the person of Christ, the work
of Christ, the truth of Christ, and the dependence upon Christ.
I've sort of added that, and then I'm gonna close with the
defense of Christ. So these are the typical things that I'm going
to show you right here in this text and then we're going to
sort of run in the ditches a little bit and then come right back
to the gospel and do the Lord's Table. Remember the cross. So I'll say it in the beginning
and I'll say it in the end that the gospel is all of grace all the
time and it's always free and it's always sovereign. The good
news of God is His work alone, for His glory alone, for His
people alone, and He has accomplished it, and He gives it freely to
His people as He wishes, when He wishes. He makes them aware
of the things that He has done for them to the praise of His
glorious grace. The only thing that we are to,
in turn, give God is praise, thanksgiving. Praise and thanksgiving
are the same word. I just want to praise the Lord.
See, sometimes we worship in song because we love what we're
feeling and what we're hearing, but we're not loving the one
to whom it's been given. Because we're not loving the
one to whom it's been given if we're not loving the person standing
to our left and our right. Physically, intimately, practically,
spiritually, you see. And that's what John is telling
us about. And there are a lot of us who fall into the sin of
not loving, therefore we're not worshiping the Lord, we're not
praising him at all, because how can I hate you and praise
God for his grace toward me? How can I be the guy that owes
100 bucks and the king, or owes 10,000 bucks and the king lets
me off scot-free and then I go shake down the guy that owes
me 10? It doesn't work like that, does it? Jesus said, that's just
ridiculous. And they end up taking the guy
that had been forgiven $10,000, and of course that's not the literal
sense, but that's not the literal amount, so bear with me. It's
just an example that Jesus gave. It doesn't matter how much it
was. And they take everything from him. Sell his kids, and
his goats, and his dogs, and everybody else, and he puts him
in prison. Relish the joy and the peace
that comes in the gospel and focus on the sovereignty of God
and his mercy toward us and literally not think about that when we're
entertaining the idea of how we interact with one another. Idols come in the package of
the person of Christ. In verse 18 it says, we know
that everyone who's been born of God does not keep on sinning. We
see the idol there sometimes where people misinterpret that
and don't put it in its context because what it says, but he
who was born of God protects him. We talked about that last
week and the week before. We know that this is Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ, because the sins of his people have been put on
him and he has been charged with their guilt and that the wrath
of God has been satisfied, Justice has been served. In other words,
the sins that we commit are not counted against us because Christ
already paid for them. So we don't go ahead and continue
to sin in the name of grace. In the name of mercy, I'm going
to sin. That's silly. That's what Paul's talking about
when he preaches such a profound pure gospel to the Romans. So
should we continue to sin that grace may abound because grace
is effectual grace is Operative grace is sealing grace is saving
grace is the work of God Christ has saved you So put away the
sin because God was merciful to you by putting all of your
guilt on Christ We don't want to hold Christ up to contempt
over and over again That's nonsense. That's not love you see The same
thing is true when we're not loving Well I gotta keep it real. You know, sometimes love stings.
Until you're hanged on a cross, love really ain't gonna sting
very much. The love of God in Christ stung. So now we can love without fire. We can be gracious. Do you know
we're commanded to give grace to others, all people? We're
commanded to give love to all people. We're commanded to give
patience to all people, to give understanding to all people.
How are we doing so far? Well, I'm batting a thousand
in the negative. We all are. So when I don't measure
up and I go, wow, I can get three minutes out of a 10 year period
that I'm doing it well, And even then it doesn't count toward
righteousness because the only hope I have is that Christ did
it right. If this is what is required for righteousness, Christ
did it and His doing it is for me. It counts for me that He
did it and then I get credit. That's not never showing up for
school and getting an A. Because somebody else there took
all your tests and wrote all your papers and read all your
books, put your name on the paper. That's what the gospel is, good
news. You get the grade for Jesus. You get the life that Jesus lived. You get the obedience that Jesus
gave. You get the death that Jesus died. You get the life
that Jesus revealed. It's all yours. But you did nothing. That's what it means to be grace.
You don't deserve it. We don't deserve it, see. That's
why it's called grace. And we can do nothing to obtain
it. It's free. And the power of grace is all
contained within itself by the hand of God, that sovereignty. I listened to a video somebody
showed me yesterday with a popular apologist exegeting Romans 9. I thought I was gonna throw myself
down my own staircase. He who is born of God keeps you
from sin and protects you by imputation. By giving you
the credit for His righteousness. That's what Christ has done. The idols would say Christ made
a way for salvation and offered Himself for all people if they
will have Him. Beloved, if that's the words
that came to your heart when you came to know that you had
eternal life, you have not been born of God in that moment. You have not been born of God
to believe that Jesus is just a bag of righteousness that you
can stick your finger of faith in like a Marvel movie. Oh, you
touched the bad stuff, now you're a super creature. You don't get to touch the righteousness
of God and then get infused with righteousness. It was given to
you by mercy, sovereignly. And that's the message of good
news. See, it includes that. I love the evangelism of the
woman in John 4. I do a lot of thinking with John 4, outside
the context of the scripture, okay? So I have an entire body
of divinity that I've built out of that little tiny dialogue. An entire body of divinity that
I've built. And I even have the doctrine of evangelism in the
context of the Samaritan woman where she goes back having understood
the prophecies of Messiah. She knew that Messiah would come
to save his people. She knew that she was not a true
Israelite. But she knew that there was something
prophesied about the mercy of God and that her ethnicity and
the lack of her worship accurately no longer mattered. Now see this
was her new birth in the midst of that conversation. She's arguing
all of these things. And then she resolves, I guess
when Messiah comes, he will teach us all these things. And he says,
woman, the one of whom you speak, I am. And she runs to Sychar
and she says, Hey, everybody. Hey, look, look, look, look,
look, look, guys. I know you don't want to see
me. I know all y'all think I'm nasty and I don't I don't care
anymore because I met a man up here at Jacob's well, which I
don't even use. It's pretty good water, by the
way. Don't even use anymore. And he told me everything I've
ever done. He could be the Christ. Come
see. That's her evangelism. You know
what she did? She took her new life and she
said, come look at this Jesus. And then he taught them. He stayed
several days in Sychar and taught them the gospel. How many came
to faith? All that had been destined to
know the truth. That's what we should be doing,
beloved. Hey, do you believe in Jesus?
Are you looking for Jesus? Let me show him to you. Scripture,
the power of God, the words of Christ are the only, listen,
the only effectual means through which God causes faith by the
Spirit. Paul was clear on that. The Romans
are like, man, we don't know all the oracles of God. We don't
know all the prophets. We ain't studied this stupid stuff. We got a bunch
of gods. We ain't gonna serve one. We don't know. We're less Christians.
We're lesser Christians than the Jewish people. Paul's saying,
no, you're not. You're instruments of mercy. The gospel's not an ethnocentric
situation. It's not centered on a certain
type of people or certain specific people. It's centered on one
group of people, and that is the elect of God, the children
who have been foreknown before the foundation of the world.
And Paul says they can't know and believe until they hear,
and they can't hear until somebody goes and preaches. Faith comes
through hearing. How does true spiritual hearing?
See, in Isaiah 6, God had decreed, I will not allow them to hear
and I will not heal them. I'm gonna destroy them. I'm gonna
destroy them. The idolaters, I'm gonna destroy
them. They worship other gods. Beloved, we all worship other
gods. Sometimes we confuse them with
the true Christ. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing
comes by the words of Christ. And it's not our argument, nor
it is our debate, nor is it our biblical contextual synergy. Now what do I mean by that? Finding
all sorts of proof texts. You don't find proof texts in
scripture. That's not teaching. That's manipulation. Let me say that again. Finding
proof texts out of context is manipulation. It is lying about
God and it is putting burdens on other people that the Bible
does not require. So be careful. Idols in the name
of Christ, they change the person of Christ. They don't understand
the love of Christ. They don't exude self-humility. Sometimes idols come in the picture
of inflated understanding. Well, I know what I'm talking
about. No, you don't. I don't either. We just know
what the Bible says and we understand it as God has granted us understanding
But the biggest thing beyond understanding is the knowledge
of Jesus, which is an intimate work of God himself. The evil one cannot touch us. Sometimes people have idols of
fear about the evil one, don't they? Oh, you know, the devil's
at work. He sure is. He's doing exactly
what God's letting him and telling him to do. He's doing exactly
what God has decreed for him to do. He's doing exactly what
he's supposed to do. And it's not against what God
is trying to accomplish. It is so that God will accomplish
what he said he would accomplish. I want you to hear that. God
causes all things to come to pass according to his will through
any means necessary. You don't get to back up and
choose another ending. You don't get to change the page.
Choose your own ending stories. Remember those things? Those
things were huge when I was a kid. Wow, we get to see the different
ending. And then after the day's over,
you've seen them all. That's not how it works. God
purposes everything that he does. Christ and His finished work,
His divine nature, His human nature, all these things. People
have made an idol that looks like the true Christ, but He's
often not the true Christ. Some people have made an idol
and call it Christ because they want to exhibit the boldness
of Christ. They want to go into the temple
and turn over the tables. They want to call people dogs
and wolves and snakes. But no apostle and no disciple
of Christ ever did that. Paul never wrote that. John never
wrote that. Because neither of those men
are God. Neither of those men knew the
heart of men. And none of us in our human, even regenerate
state, have the authority, nor the divine gift, to be able to
know the heart of men. Well, I can judge by his mouth.
You know what? For those of you who are married,
have you ever said something that just won't wash off? Parents, you ever said something
to your kids that they won't forget? One of my children years and
years ago called me Satan, to which I retorted at her at six
years old, and you're the daughter of Satan. Touche. I mean, you know, you
say things with your mouth. My daddy used to always say,
son, don't let your mouth write a check that your butt cannot
cash. Never understood that until I did. No, we don't have the right because
God has not given us a divine eye. People have idols and call
them Christ and they think that being bold and mean and vicious
is Christ-like. It's not Christ. They don't know
the true Christ. Verse 19 says, we know that we
are from God. How? Because we know the one
who is from God. who is born of God in the flesh,
who is God in the flesh, who protects us from the evil one. What is the idol and what is
the true Christ? The idol is the thing that causes
fear. The idol is the thing that demands something more. The idol
demands your attention. The idol can't wipe its own nose,
so it needs you around. What kind of Christ is that?
A Christ that's begging you to come? A Christ that's hoping
that you won't get lost? Versus a Christ that has the
power to call all of his sheep, and they know his voice, and
they hear it, and they recognize it. See, sometimes we have an idol
of our faith. I've said this a thousand times, literally,
probably a thousand times. And I won't even have to explain
it anymore, but we have a love affair with salvation in our,
a salvation experience in our culture. We have since the 1900s,
early 1900s. And more prominently in the foolishness
of the wickedness of the evangelistic movements of the 1940s and 50s.
Jesus movements of the 1960s and 70s. Christian coalition
movements of the 80s and 90s. It's just an idol after idol
after idol after idol, and it's easy to suck us in, isn't it?
You know what, I'm pretty riled up about omissions. I think this
guy's got something going on, and we gotta protect God's planet,
and I'm just gonna make this a spiritual issue. I'm gonna
feed this idol until Jesus says it's good. We can make an idol out of our
politics by attaching it to Jesus. An idol needs our attention.
Jesus doesn't need our attention. We have His attention. It is finished. I give my life
for the sheep. I am the bread of life. I am the living water. This is
the work of Christ. He has done the work. He has focused His
work toward the Father, propitiating the Father for the sake of His
people. Some people have a true idol
of their own faith and they think that faith is a moment in time
when they did something or believe something or made a cognitive
decision to accept something. Is that true of faith? Yeah,
it is, but it's not a God-given faith. if rest isn't with it. Because here's the difference.
Well, I know that I'm saved because yesterday I believed these things
were true. So what? You want me to give
you a list of people with PhDs that believe these things are
true? Let me give you a list of evangelists that believe these
things are true, but yet when they're all into the understanding
of scripture and they're teaching and they're talking, they cannot
demonstrate a clear gospel. It's always conditioned on what
man has done. You know what that's called?
As I said it, 2004, I think was the first time I said that, people
have faith in their own faith. Beloved, your faith can fail
in and of itself. And if your hope is bound in
how solid you are trusting in the Lord Jesus, then you are
not going to have the joy of Christ. You don't need a bunch of faith. When we are faithless, Paul writes
to Timothy, he is faithful for he cannot deny himself. See the idol of faith? Faith
is a necessary condition. It does not cause you to be saved.
It does not cause you to be born again. It is the evidence of
your salvation. It is the work of God who opens
your eyes and you see what He's already accomplished for you.
Because if our faith doesn't rest in a solid reality, in a
solid promise, then our faith is misplaced. And beloved, you
can't put your hope in how you feel and how much you believe. People that tell me they don't
have a wavering faith are not growing in the faith. They've
never experienced discipline. What does discipline of the Lord
look like? Well, it's hard. It is not good. It could look
like hell tearing up your brand new car, or your house burning
down, or your marriage falling apart, or your children being
unruly, or you dying of something, or somebody dying of something.
It's not discipline to kill me. It's great. And of course, the initial shock
of it all and the worries of the flesh are gonna, it's gonna
be hard. Oh no, my kids, my family, my loved ones. Oh no, what's
gonna happen? Well, too bad, you see. But our faith is going to wane.
It is not about our faithfulness. It's about the faithfulness of
Jesus Christ who did the work. So the smallest little inkling
of mustard seed type faith that focuses on the promises of God,
faith alone in the person of Christ and what he accomplished
for his people, this is what we cling to. Sometimes it's a
fingernail connection in our own understanding. But ultimately,
God has grabbed us and squeezed us into life. And nothing, nothing,
not even ourselves can take us out of His hand. I want you to
hear that. Nothing. Some people make an
idol of the fact that there is a sinlessness going on. This
is the Calvinistic evangelical idol. where you know that it
is by grace alone. You know that the Word of God
teaches that Christ has accomplished salvation. But, you see, the
buts, they always get stuck in the doors, aren't they? But,
that was funny. If you aren't loving things the
way you ought to love things, if you aren't hating things the
way you should hate things, You aren't doing the things on my
list the way that I think the Bible says you ought to be doing
them. You probably are not born again. So where is the hope?
Do the apostles ever teach that? Never. Never. Ever. Ever. As a matter of fact, Jesus
teaches the exact opposite. He talks about those people who
are doing well according to morality and are doing well according
to spirituality. The spiritual sense of Moralness,
morality, and righteousness according to the law. And he says, you
see these people? Your righteousness better be
exponentially greater than theirs. And it freaked them out. The Pharisees couldn't get in
there. The religionists couldn't get in there. The zealots can't
get into the kingdom of heaven. The theologians like Nicodemus
can't get into the kingdom of heaven. The pastors, the priests,
the shepherds, they can't get into the kingdom of heaven. Only
the believing ones are in the Kingdom of Heaven. And the believing
is the work of God by the Holy Spirit alone. And a 3-year-old can be born
of God. And a 93-year-old can be born
of God. Somebody with Down syndrome,
somebody with a head injury, somebody who can't see, somebody
who can't hear. You think all deaf people are
reprobate? You don't think God can plant
understanding in the simplest of minds? I said that it's easier for a
rich man to get into a sewing needle. I mean, to shove a camel
through a sewing needle than it is for a rich man to get into
heaven, as Jesus says. And they said what? Who can be
saved? Don't believe that higher critic
garbage about Well, the sewing needle is a place of low blah,
blah, blah. When the water goes down, the
camel has to kneel. No, he's talking about what you
sew your underwear up with, folks. When you got socks and need mending,
it's a needle with thread in it. It's easier to put a camel
through the eye of that needle than it is for a rich man to
get to heaven. And the point of that was not to give an exposition
of doctrine of the evil of rich people, because there are rich
people who are born again. If there weren't, we'd all be
homeless. I mean, you know what I'm saying? It was to show that it is impossible
because you can't put a camel through the eye of a needle. And he said, who can be saved?
Who can be saved, Jesus? He said, what is impossible for
man is possible with God. You see where your hope lies?
You see the idols that we have in our lives? Where pastors will
say, well, you know that you're born again because you're struggling
with your sin. Mormons struggle with their sin. Catholics struggle
with their sin. They go to confession every week. And beloved, I'm telling you
right now, you've been hearing me say this for years, and I use
the adjective, or I use this statement, the evangelical cult. I believe that evangelicalism,
by and large, is just another institutionalized cult in the
name of Christ. And every denomination in there,
as a whole, it's like Jesus would look at the Pharisees and say,
you brood of vipers, but yet Nicodemus was an elect man among
them. See, it's not individually speaking when I say that. I'm
saying in a general sense, as the whole, everywhere you look
at critical mass, it becomes an idol. Everywhere people begin to organize
around certain distinctions, it becomes idolatry because those
things take precedent over the sufficiency of the gospel of
grace. We know that the Son has come
and given us understanding. See, here is the thing here in
verse 20. This is another idol that is often misunderstood in
our day. When someone comes and clearly
and directly grasps the gospel in its simplicity, understands
by the power of God the Spirit, simple grace, and in some sense
still infantile in their knowledge of this. from a systematic or
theological point of view. When they confess the gospel
and someone says, well, see, I don't know that you have understanding
because you don't have this. I don't know that you don't have
understanding because you don't know the differences between this. Hand a two year
old an orange of any flavor. How many different
types of oranges are there? Hundreds? Thousands? They don't
know. You want an orange? Yes. What
kind would you like? There's 75 here on the counter.
I want an orange. It's juicy, it's sweet, I like
it. Orange please. Grace is grace is grace. Simplicity
of God's electing grace for his people is granted to the believer
and sometimes we make an idol by trying to convince people
who are convinced that they know Christ, that they don't know
Christ, when they do know Christ. I'm not talking about people
who believe false gospels. I'm not talking about what I've
already said about faith in one's faith or free will. Let's get
that one out there. It's not about decisions. You're
not making a decision. Your decisions don't save us.
See, that's the garbage that we see in our world today. Are
you going to choose Christ today? I can say that to you. You need
to choose Christ today. You need to live for Christ today. Live for His glory, beloved. Christ loves you. He gave Himself
for you. Live for Him. Choose wisely.
Do it all for the glory of Christ, beloved. That's why the church
is for the beloved. So we can make sense of the New
Testament letters which are written to the beloved. But we don't
come to the place of going, you know, well, I said a prayer of
salvation and that prayer saved me. No, it didn't. That's not
a true gospel. It's a false gospel. It's an
idol and it's one of the largest idols in our world today. And
some people will argue, well, that's just a nuance. No, it's
not a nuance. To be told that there is a Jesus
who did something different than what the Bible says he did is
the same Jesus that Rome believes in and the same Jesus that Latter-day
Saints believes in, the same that the Russellites believe
in. It's the same Jesus. He's providing some type of different
opportunity for salvation and it is conditioned on man, you
see. And I've caught a lot of flack
through the years telling people who fall into grievous sin. who
are believers to continually run after Christ. I had one young man that went
to prison, member of my church, and somebody said, what did you
tell him? I told him to keep running after
Christ in prison. He was still free, though he
was locked away. Well, how are you going to tell him to do that?
He needs to get saved. Really? We're going there again? Sometimes people worship. They
create an idol by worshiping the work of another person. They
worship the work of their own hands. They worship the work
of the hands of someone else. They worship the work of something
that they have done to get to the place where God will accept
them. What can we bring? We sang it this morning, didn't
we? Nothing in thy hands I bring. You know what you bring? If you
bring anything to the Lord, He's going to reject you. I'm going
to say that again. If you bring anything to the
Lord as a gift, or as a condition, or as evidence of your salvation,
He's going to reject you. You've either been purchased
by the blood of Christ, and in that you rest, or you are dead
in your sins. See, that is where we have to
focus. Sometimes we worship the fruit
of faith. We worship the conditions of Christian living. We worship
the work of our own hands. We worship our minds and its
understanding, the knowledge. We worship the desires of our
will. And we think that God is transforming a lot of those things.
Sometimes we worship forms of godliness. Sometimes we worship
the functions of godliness. Oh, look at me, I'm serving and
I'm doing. Don't make it an idol. Don't make it your confidence.
Sometimes we worship our formalities, how we do what we do. Are we
doing it right? I think we need to be more pious.
I think we need to dress differently. We need to have softer music,
lower lights. You see, we want to create the
feeling. We want to worship our feelings. You know what? You
want feelings? Slap yourself. You'll feel it. Throw yourself
downstairs. You'll feel it. You can come
in here and feel all wonderful. And we'll pray for you. Sometimes
we worship distinctions. Sometimes we question the power
of Christ and His Word. When we really, according to
the Scripture, we know He who is true, we know the Son of God
has come and given us understanding so that we may know Him who is
true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ,
who is the true God and the eternal life, so we keep ourselves from
idols. We keep ourselves from anything that takes our joy and
takes our focus and takes our rest off of Him. The only thing
we bring to the Father is the righteousness of Christ. That's
it. Adam and Eve want to cover themselves
up with figs? Nope. The blood of Christ is
the only thing we can be bathed in and clothed in. and it's not
even the blood, it's His righteousness imputed. The guilt is removed
because of His death. Our standing before God in His
presence is an imputed righteousness because Christ is our substitute
in justice and in glory. He's your substitute. And I know
we know this, beloved, but I'm gonna tell you what, these idols
are strong, and they're strong in their subtleness. They're
strong and fear is a strong motivator. Worry is a strong motivator.
And sometimes we have all of this together and we get to the
place where we think, now I see these problems, we see these
things. Let me tell you something. And another brother even said
it, and I said it a couple of weeks ago. I've been talking
about it on Sunday nights. I've got another question tonight
about the strong delusion. But God gives delusions through
false teachers and false religions and close religions. It is His
business. It is His way of sealing deception. So when we hear false gospel
preachers, we should go, my Lord's at work there. Father, save your sheep from
that. That's His will, you know that,
right? He will do that. So we pray it. Save your sheep
from the lie. We don't question the power and
the work of Christ. We stand on the Father's promises.
We stand firm and rest in the revelation of His word. We stand firm in the person and
the work of Christ and in His power. And we don't have to defend
against error the way that we think we do. That in of itself
is an idol. In Ephesians 6, the spiritual
warfare caused the Christian to stand firm and stand alone. Not stand by himself, but that's
it. That's all he's to do. In Ephesians
6, it says, put on the full armor of God. What does that armor
look like? Let's go there real quick before
we close. Be strong in the Lord and in
the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God
so that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
See, Christ, we've already seen in 1 John, protects us from the
evil one. But now we get this mindset,
we've got to be a warrior. No, God the Son is our warrior.
He has the flame. He has the power. He has the
flaming sword with which he strikes down the nations. He sends the
enemy into the world to deceive the nations. But you may be able to stand
against the schemes of the devil, for we do not wrestle against flesh
and blood, but against the rulers and the authorities, against
the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual
forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, verse 13 of
Ephesians 6, take up the whole armor of God, so that you may
be able to withstand in the day of evil, and having done so,
stand firm. And then the command in verse 14 is, stand therefore. Ready? Stand therefore. Here
we go. Having fastened on the belt of truth. Now picture this
in your mind. This was written so that we could
have a picture of a man getting ready for battle. Putting on
armor. He's putting on the belt of truth.
And don't believe all this nonsense that you hear from these mooshy-meeshy
preachers who like to try to make all this theological. But
the belt keeps up the pants and the pants do this and that does
that and twinkle twinkle little star and everything. This is
a picture for your brain, okay? So it's a picture for your brain.
Stop listening to that nonsense and see the context. Having fastened. You see that
grammatically? You've already got it on. Having
fastened on the belt of truth, having put on the breastplate
of righteousness, which covers your whole body. It's not this
thing that goes in the front. A breastplate covers your body. Well, see, now you can't retreat.
Anybody who retreats is going to be shot by the devil. I mean,
you know, that's not the point. Does Paul say that? No, he's
not teaching that either. That's an implication that's
not taught in the context here. Listen to the words, having already
have the belt of truth. having already put on the breastplate
of righteousness as shoes having already put on the readiness
given by the gospel of peace and in all circumstances taking
up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the framing
darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the
sword of the spirit which is the word of God as you are praying
at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication.
And here's the next command. To that end, keep alert with
all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints and also for
me, et cetera. So the two commands are stand
firm, having put on the armor of God, truth, peace, righteousness,
the gospel, the word. Who is that? Christ. Who has overcome the world? Christ.
We have been given the knowledge that we are in Him. You see how
simple that is? We are in Him. And we are free. And we are alive. So the command
is to stand in Him. And then the command is to pray
at all times in the Spirit and for others. And then to keep
alert with all perseverance. Maintain your understanding.
Maintain the discipline of resting in the faith. How do I do that?
By the grace of God. It is all by the grace of God.
We are kept by the power of God. Wednesday night I talked about
that. The divine power of God keeps us. And our job and our
discipline is to love the Lord with all of our heart, mind,
and soul. And it's evidenced through this. We are praying
for all the saints. You know why things are so hard
on us so many times? Because we're not praying for
each other. God's will is that we pray for
one another, and God's will is to answer the prayers of the
saints who ask, according to His will, that we would have
the joy of Christ, which is ours in Christ already, that we would
have the mind of Christ. It's simple, but yet it's the
hardest thing for us to do. It was the idol of thinking we're
the hero and we've got to resolve the issues. Christ has already fixed them.
And Paul explains it. Pray for me also, verse 19 of
Ephesians 6, that words may be given to me
in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel. And that is why I am an ambassador
in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.
If you want to be bold, I met a man that told me everything
I've ever done, it could be the Christ. Come see. Show people the Christ. Don't
fight against the idols. Show them the Christ. Show them
the gospel. When they engage, they go, no,
how is this the true Christ and this the same Christ? Show them. Don't start with the second.
Let me say, show them. And then once you do, the rest
is up to the Lord. And that in and of itself is
up to the Lord. We are at peace. And that peace brings us joy.
And that joy is shattered when we take idols not knowing their
idols, and we put them ahead of Christ, and it shakes the
very, I don't even want to say unity, it shakes the peace right
out of the church. Doesn't it? It shakes us. We're
at odds with ourselves, we're at odds with our minds, we're
at odds with our flesh, we're at odds with each other, we're at odds. Beloved, we cannot
be at odds, because Christ has purchased us with his blood.
So everything else can be worked through. Why? Because of the
blood and the body of Jesus Christ for us. Let's prepare our hearts
for that now. Let's pray. We thank you, Lord,
that you can even make sense in our own hearts and minds about
these things. Father, that it is hard to elaborate
on this text in 1 John twisting scripture. And Lord,
the application there is so deep and wide, but ultimately it is
very narrow and that we ought to rest in Christ as He is shown
in the Bible. And that we ought to judge by
Christ as He is shown in the Bible. And that we ought to learn
and grow in Christ as He is taught to us in the Bible. For you have revealed yourself
supernaturally through the natural pen of men. And you have preserved
your word. Through which you have called
your people to a great calling. To know the true Christ and to
be free. Father, as we take time this
morning to celebrate the work of Christ on the cross, help
us to reflect on how we feel and how we serve one another.
And that as we take this table, remind us and humble us that
it is all of grace. And that nothing, nothing we
bring is deserving of God's time. But that you have given us to
Christ, and he has given himself to you. In his name we pray,
amen.