Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Hello and Merry Christmas. How long is this gonna go? Is this gonna be our, I hope you get are, let me guess. You took your lights down already. This is gonna be the Merry Christmas podcast. Did you take your, I'm not home. Your tree down, so I can't take my lights down. Down. That's true. You're gone. We probably had someone else come and do it for you though, you know? Hey, something really cool that I just saw happened on the 23rd of this last week, 23rd of last week at one of the HBS here in North Texas. Everybody was out doing their last minute shopping for the week for Christmas tracking so far, and their computer systems went down in store. They gave away everything for free. They did what the HEB employee came out and was like, Hey, appreciate your patience. We love that you're our customers here. And so we're gonna back up all that you guys have and have a Merry Christmas. I would've turned around. And I went on a shopping screen, cleared the shelves, 15 briskets. I need 35 pounds of your best chicken breast stat. Yeah. That's amazing. That's amazing. What a fun. That's super cool. Yeah. How did that not get in your sermon? I, because I just found out about it just now. I'm just saying, man, you the 24th though, you mentioned nothing about it. Did I not? You said nothing. That's, that seems really remiss if I didn't mention that at all. Super remiss. I feel like Exactly. I, I, I'm flabbergasted. How did you not say anything about it? I, I think I did. Maybe you should go back and re-listen to it again. You mentioned a cow that had wings and that was it. I, I definitely. And then you were wearing those weird shoes. The socks, you know? Hey, listen, my wife gave those to me. Okay, so dude, what a cool experience. Yeah. How, okay, just outta curiosity, how much were your groceries? Would've been my groceries. Were you not there? I was not there. Was Amanda there? No. No one was there. No. Oh, I thought you were there. No, I wasn't there. Oh, okay. I saw 'em. It's still cool on social media. They were posting, somebody posted about, it's still cool. It's just not as cool anymore. Well. Sorry. All right. Well, I thought you enjoyed it. I was living vicariously through you, dude. No, that would've been great if I had enjoyed it, but I didn't thought, I thought, okay, well cool. I enjoyed it through the screen. I watched other people enjoy it. Did anyone we know enjoy it? I don't know. Maybe they'll have to let us know. People were clapping when they announced it though, which is appropriate. That is really sweet. Yeah, that is really sweet. I mean, what a stellar move. You cannot pay for that kind of advertising either, because those people will be diehards for the rest of their lives. Oh, for sure. Yeah. HB and even the people that. Didn't benefit from it. Like I watched that and I'm like, okay, I'm shopping at HEB now. If that's who they are, maybe they'll With the lottery. Yeah. Well I already was shopping there 'cause they're butter tortillas. They're hot butter tortillas. Those are pretty dope, man. Pretty dope. Yeah. Those are so good. They have good chips too. Have you tried their chips? Their chips are so good. Get the salty ones. I don't know why you'd get the non salty, I don't know for one, but two, get the salty chips in fact. Post Christmas, the salt really helpful if you're on the sugar high and you're crashing from all the sweets. Okay, get some salt. So you hear, heard it here first though. Get some salty chips from HEB that'll make you feel better. Okay. Awesome. Won't make you any lighter, won't make you healthier, but it'll make you feel better. Okay. Hey, I'm, I'm, I'm in, I'm in. Sign me up. Yeah. I can eat those chips by themselves. Like, they don't even need dip. They're that good. They're so good. Yeah. Yeah. The whole HEB thing reminds me of he who has been forgiven most loves most. Right. It's that whole idea you, you've been given most. So it's that whole, yeah. You gain so much from it. It's like, man I will always forever love these people. Yeah. Yeah. What a good ability. I wish you would've used that illustration somewhere. I maybe, you know what, you should go back and check this, the Christmas sermon. 'cause I'm pretty sure it got in there. I guarantee you did not say a word anyways. Hey, Merry day after Christmas to all of you who celebrate. Oh. So I get called out for that, but you can do it. I called a day after Christmas. You said Merry Christmas. I can't say it's the same thing. It was yesterday. It's you, you said Merry day after. It's the same thing. It's the day after. Oh. Boy, you guys see what I have to deal with here. Pray for me, please, pray for me. I'm sure they do. I gotta check my blood pressure. I'm sure they do. Hey, we are in First John today and man, this is a letter that is convicting. This is a challenging letter and it's also a letter that has created a lot of questions. Amongst those that go to interpret it about what is really the point of the letter. Is it about fellowship or is it about salvation? In other words, is it a test of fellowship? Meaning are you in fellowship with God or is it a test of salvation? The difference being somebody might be saved and just not walking with the Lord. They are a adrift, they're walking in rebellion. Sometimes people will refer to this as carnal Christianity. This is, person who professes faith in Christ, but really shows no evidence of it in their life. When you look at their life under a magnifying glass, or even not just observe their life, you don't really see any fruit. You, you see somebody who's living pretty much just like the world at large in the world around them, and there are some that would say that person is still saved. They're still. A part of the body of Christ, they're still a Christian. They're just not in fellowship with the Lord. They're not walking with the Lord. The other camp would look at one John and say, no, this is a test of salvation. What John is writing here is not about whether or not somebody is in fellowship, but whether or not somebody is even in Christ to begin with. And that's the camp, that's the side that we would fall on. We would say that this is a test of salvation and not a test of fellowship. That does not mean that a Christian doesn't. Battle sin. That does not mean that a Christian doesn't have seasons where they might struggle with a given sin, but by and large, the general trajectory of the life of a believer is one of progression towards christlikeness, and that is what we know is progressive sanctification. And so the letter of one John says Some. Some pretty difficult things, but he is calling us to examine our lives and to realize that to follow Jesus is to follow Jesus in obedience and to separate ourselves more and more from what is in the world as we try to align ourselves more and more with what it looks like to be like Jesus. One cool thing that I learned this time around is that First John, it doesn't give you an audience. Let's just notice that come before second John and third John. That's, that's a great point. See, I didn't even think about that one, but that's a really good insight. Well, that, and what you find here is that John doesn't say dear certain people. He does. It's not like a normal letter. And so it led me to ask the question, well, who's he talking to? And John is likely referring to the Ephesian church. And if not just them, a circular letter that was meant to be read at all of Asia minor churches. So Ephesus became, in my mind, one of the most privileged churches in the New Testament because they get so much inks built. They've got the book of Ephesus, they got First John. They get the book of Revelation, which has a letter to them. These guys are getting a lot of attention, so this is really cool. First John, because he was likely pastoring in or around that area, is likely to the church had Ephesus and the surrounding cities. Perhaps. We don't know for sure. It doesn't say, to Ephesus or to these church, but it, that's. One of the best guesses. They also got Paul writing to Timothy about being in Ephesus and what he should be doing there. Right. As a pastor, right? Yeah. Talk about Ephesus being a privileged church and yet a tragic church at the same time. Oh, that just goes to show they can have all the best privileges and still miss it. Yeah. That's scary. Yeah, it is. It is take heed. Well, he writes in, opens about the contrast between the light and darkness, and that as Christians we should be characterized by light. Now, he goes on and says here that a Christian is not one that says, I have no sin. In fact, he says, if you say I'm sinless, you're a liar. And the truth is not in you. But he goes on to say, we an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior who is there when we do sin and we can confess our sins. And he's faithful and just to forgive us because of our advocate, because of our mediator, Jesus Christ. But from here, he's really gonna go on, in most of the rest of the letter to say a Christian is not one who practices sin. That is a theme that is gonna show up time and time again in John's letter that a Christian is not one that goes on sinning, meaning habitual, persistent. Unrepentant Unconfessed sin being harbored in a Christian's life that's incompatible with the presence of the spirit of God within a Christian's life. And so even though John opens up by saying no, Christian can say, I don't sin anymore, John's gonna go on and say A Christian whose life is comfortable with sin. A Christian whose life has sin present. In persistent is a Christian or a professing Christian who needs to really wonder whether or not they're truly safe to begin with. Okay? That's such a heavy truth. People are gonna struggle with that because if you have a sensitive soul at all, yes, you're gonna say, I sin every day though. I sin every day and I'm not comfortable with it. But I do repeat some of the same sins a lot. Does that mean I'm not walking in the light? That's why I think. Our approach to and even when somebody says, you know what I'm struggling with this sin. This is just my own preference. I prefer to say, Hey I'm battling this sin. I'm battling the sin of pride. I'm battling the sin of coveting, I'm battling the sin. Because I think that's what's key. A Christian who's actively ongoing, genuinely fighting. Is somebody that can say there's evidence of the spirit's work in my life here. I think a Christian who is being owned by their sin, overcome by their sin. In fact, we didn't mention it, but yesterday, second Peter, Peter says, anything that overpowers or overcomes a person to that, that person is enslaved. And so I think a Christian who is not engaged in the battle, who is given up, or I use the term Christian professing Christian who's not fighting anymore, not. Who's grown comfortable with their sin and doesn't care about it anymore. That's the person who's on dangerous ground versus the Christian that is keeping short accounts with God at the end of every day, saying, where have I? Where do I need to confess? What do I need to bring to the light? Who is seeking accountability, seeking help, seeking freedom from sin? I think that's a person that we can see. There is evidence of the spirit's work. In their life. And I think John acknowledges that because he says, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us. So it's not like a Christian doesn't sin at all. Christians do sin, but we sin not with comfortability. It's not like we're bedfellows and we love it. And we're saying we want more of that. We hate our sin. Hating your sin is not enough. That is not just having the right feelings, but having the right response. And part of the response is confessing, repenting, and walking with the Lord progressively more and more so as you in Christ. Yeah. In chapter three, he actually gives four breakdowns in four reasons why we should really fight and avoid the ongoing pattern of sin in our lives. He first says everyone, verse four, who makes a practice of sinning, also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness and Christ appeared to take away sin. So there's an incompatibility there. The second thing we jump down there in verse six. He says, no one who abides in him keeps on sinning, and no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. So we wanna fight habitual sin in our life because it's not in keeping with the fact that we abide in Christ. The third reason down in verse eight, whoever makes a practice of sinning that is ongoing sin here is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. Hopefully that's an easy reason why we would want to avoid that. And then finally he says. In verse nine, no one born of God makes a practice of sinning for God's seed. That is the life of God abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he's been born of God. So there's kind of four breakdowns there in chapter three about why habitual, persistent, ongoing, unrepentant, unconfessed sin is not. Compatible with a professing believer. What does it mean that God seed abides into mea, talked about his life force, his life. I would say that doesn't realize for us as believers through this indwelling of the spirit. That's what I was thinking too. Yeah. So God seeded a reference to the Holy Spirit taking residence in our lives and that I think that is the critical distinguishing factor for Christians in that we have the spirit. He provokes us to be holy. Yeah. Provokes us to confess. But there is something interesting about that too. The Paul's gonna talk about this and so maybe this is the best time to bring it up. But nevertheless there is something about the subjective experience of assurance in Christ, and we're gonna get to that in the gospel. Are the in first John. He's gonna talk about that in chapter five. But talk about how this interaction gives us assurance of our salvation. The interaction of the spirits work in our lives to provoke us, to not walk in lawlessness, to make a practice of sinning, et cetera. Yeah, I think even going back to second Peter chapter one where Peter says, supplement your faith with these things. If you see these things and they are increasing, then that gives you confidence. And when we see the spirits work in our lives, when we see the transformative power of God, where we look back at our lives and see. The freedom he's given us in various areas or see the growth in Christ's likeness in other areas that is something that can reassure our hearts before God as he's gonna talk about later, and give us a great confidence that we have that secure standing with Christ. And how do we do that without looking at our lives as being the confidence of our faith? You were saying that there's a right looking at our lives to say, am I growing? Am I making progress? And maybe in 2025, I, this is the first time I read my whole Bible. Praise God for that. I wanna look at that. But I don't want that to be the confidence of my faith. Yeah. I don't wanna say, oh, my works show that I'm a Christian necessarily. How do I keep that balance? I think coming back and preaching the gospel every day to yourself, I think reminding yourself over and over again of what your confidence is, which is Christ alone. That, that is the foundation. We go back to Ephesians two or even Philippians, that Ephesians two, by grace, you have been saved through faith and yet he goes on to say you are his workmanship. And so there's the both an but the foundation of the works that we work, the foundation of the obedience that we execute is our faith in Jesus Christ, that he died on the cross for our sins so that we could be forgiven and rose against so that we might live with him forever. Right. And that takes a lot of time. For that to happen. Sometimes assurance is a slow process. It's much more like a crockpot and less like a microwave. So if this is you, if this is stepping on your toes and you're feeling conviction, I remember when I read First John, years ago, I was so convicted because I was like, I'm not loving the brothers. Mm-hmm. I, I'm not doing it right. I don't, I, I get, I go to church, I do the things, but I don't love people and I was scared. Because I'm like, if I don't have that, am I even a really Christian? Mm. So one of the things that God did for me in that is to show, okay, I don't love the brothers the way I should. I'm gonna, I'm gonna pursue that. I'm gonna start learning to love people the way that I should. And that began a long, I, I'm still learning to do this, a long process of loving people well, and now I can look at my life as okay. There's a lot more evidence. And God used first John to provoke me to do that. I would thank God for that because I was convicted. I saw that I repented of my lack of love, and I began to provoke genuine acts of love. By the spirit, do his word. And now I can say, okay I'm not, meeting it with flying colors, but I'm doing it and I'm doing it by God's grace. Yeah. And it's interesting I mentioned the personalities of the authors, I think in yesterday's podcast here we see the, that emphasis on love in John chapter three, that love for one another that you're talking about. John is the one that records John 1334 through 35, a new commandment I give to you. None of the other gospel writers record that. You see the things that really struck some of these men in what they record in the gospels, in what they record in their letters. And John was struck by this imperative to love one another. And he includes a lot of that here in First John as well. And here's something exciting too, John, this is the same John that's like, should we call down fire on these people? Jesus, they, they rejected us. Should we just destroy them like little bugs? And Jesus is like John. John? No. Yeah, no, John. He was called a son of thunder. Yeah. That tells you what kind of personality. This guy, God radically changed John to become this from this guy who was aggressive and let's squash them like a bug into, Hey guys, let love one another. I was amazing. Well, and he was, yeah. He's also the one that was like, Hey Jesus, can I sit at your right hand? Right. Is that okay? His mom asked for him too. Well his mom. Yeah, both. Mom, can you ask for him? Ask that please. Yeah. So God changed him. Yeah. What, what Great hope that is for the rest of us. Totally. He goes on in chapter four to describe the, what you're just saying there. What transforms us and what causes us to love is our understanding that God first loved us and he, this is where we get the statements. God is love, and that's something that has been twisted and abused in our culture, our society. In its context here when we read it, we have to understand God is love and the definition of love is that sacrificial love for one another. He loved us sacrificially first so that we might go out and love other people sacrificially, not in condoning sin. In fact, that's such a twist and a perversion when the world says, well, God is love. So Christian, how can you judge other people? For us to condone sin is the grandest perversion of God's love that we could ever have because God's love is expressed in sending his son to. Die for sins for us to then downplay the sins that Jesus had to die for is hatred for the Lord. It's not love at all. And so here in John four, he's saying, God is love. We should love because we've been loved by him. Such a good point because so often today love is God. It's the other way around, right? Yeah. Christians we say God is love, and that means that there's a definitive understanding about what love is and God himself defines it. Yeah. He tells us what that is, and so we have to look at his character. We have to look at his word to say, what does love look like? Because God himself displays that we don't get it wrong. We don't say love is God. For most people, that's exactly what it is. When they say love is love, and. Let love flourish or whatever they say. Yeah, put the banners on the signs and all those things. Man, we appreciate the fact that people want to, I know exercise some form of love, but it is distorted and it is perverted. And this is where we have to draw lines, guys. I understand it's really uncomfortable for us because we're generally nice people. We, we don't like to stir up controversy. We're not doing it for fun's sake, we're doing it for the Lord's sake. So when you recognize these issues at hand recognize you're standing on sure footing. God is love, not love is love. God is love. Yeah. Four 10 or four 18. He makes this statement. He says, there is no fear and love, but perfect love casts out fear. And yet we've talked about this before on the podcast. We're called a fear God. And so there must be something else going on here. And there is. And he goes on there and says, for fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. So the love that we have for the Lord is not the. He's a love that casts out the fear of judgment, of punishment, of hell. And that goes back to our assurance that you were talking about earlier, that when we have that love for him, that does show up as he's gonna say in chapter five, in our obedience of him, then that assures us. And we don't fear the judgment. We don't fear the punishment that's coming. We still fear God, but we don't fear God's wrath because that's been satisfied by Christ. Chapter five, verse six. He mentioned something. He says, this is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. Not by water only, but by the water and the blood. And so here water is referring to his baptism. Blood is referring to his death, and so. John is appealing to both of these things. There are three that testify the spirit, the water, the blood, and these three agree. And so he's pointed to the earthly ministry of Christ. He's pointing to the fact that he did indeed come in the flesh. He's combating some false teaching that was existing out there at the time as well, and saying he came in the flesh. He was baptized in the flesh. He died in the flesh, and we've seen these things, and his life was empowered by the spirit of God in him and working in him as well. Now if I have a new King James version of the Bible? Yes. And I read this passage, it says something different. Read the passage in the King James. Should I do that? Yes. Okay. I have to pull it up then. Gimme a second. [Jeopardy theme] what? What passage is this? First John? It's first John five and six James version, because I'm guessing at least a couple people have this version. Okay. There we go. Mm-hmm. This is he who came by the water and blood, Jesus Christ. Not only the water, but by the water and the blood. And this is the Spirit who bears witness because the spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. And these three are one that sounds like a Trinitarian verse right there. Yeah it's an interpretation made by the editors there because in the Greek, it's the word in the Greek for water, it's the word in the Greek for spirit, and it's the word in the Greek for blood. So it's an interpreted interpretation made by the editors to claim that this is dealing with the father the spirit, and the son. And I would say in that instance, it's probably not the best interpretation that's made, I think. Preferable to stick with what they actually refer to, which is water and blood. Now we're making an interpretation to say that water refers to baptism, blood refers to his death. But there seems to be more solid footing in doing that than in leaping to the fact that we're saying this is the father, the spirit, and the son. This is a Trinitarian verse, right? We love the new King James version. Yes, I have great affection for it. I grew up with the new King James, and that's actually how I knew this. 'cause I read that. And I remember reading that thinking, oh, what a great verse for the Trinity. Yeah, why don't more Christians use this? And then somehow I got connected to the ESV and I'm like, wow, that's not what it says. Yeah. And then I had to do some digging. So if you have a new King James we're not saying throw it away. It's a good Bible. You recognize that there are translation philosophies that inform what is on your page, and that's not a bad thing. Everyone does it. But just notice that there's more going on than what meets the eye often. One more section that would probably be helpful for us is dealing with the sin that leads to death. In chapter five, verse 16, he says, if anyone sees his brother committing a sin that not does not lead to death. He shall ask and God will give him life. But to those who commit sins that do lead to death, he says there is a sin that leads to death. And I do not say that you should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there's a sin that does not lead to death. And this is a, an interesting text, an interesting passage there. Certainly we could say the sin of blasphemy would be in view there blasphemy of the spirit. But is there further sins that lead to death that we shouldn't pray for there? I don't know that I can say that I could identify this is a sin that leads to death. Don't pray for that person, or don't pray in that situation other than is there a situation where there's wisdom there, there's discernment to know when you should perhaps back off and see God's hand of judgment at work in somebody's life. I it, what are your thoughts beyond, yeah. This is a tough passage because I always feel a sense of, I, I can pray for somebody, right? I don't know definitively. If someone has crossed the line. Right. And we've talked about that. Hebrews tells us there are lines that you can cross where there's no coming back. Right. In my mind for John to speak. So certainly he'd have to be talking about something that is so egregiously obvious that that person's never coming back. And so he says in First John chapter two, if they went out from us, they were not of us. So he has to be talking in my mind about some form of aposty where it's evident they're done. Yeah. That's the kind of, that's the kind of person where he's saying it doesn't even make sense to pray for them. Save your prayers for things that are gonna have an effect because they're so far gone, they're so deep in the muck and the mire that there's just no return. I still take the position that I don't know, I just don't know. Right. I think about here's guys that you might know that are not church people, so maybe this is a little easier to talk about. Rhett and Link. Yep. There's two guys that were all over my Christian content videos who were singing cool songs, and they were fun to listen to and they're really cool. They very publicly denied the faith. Yep. In a very obvious, clear way. And I think there's a lot of people that still reach out to him and say, Hey man, you know, the water's still good. We'd love to have you back anytime. And he's gone on the record multiple times saying, I'm not gonna do that. My life has changed. It's better now. I like the life that I live. And I think maybe John might be talking about a guy like that. There's a public declaration of Aposty. I'm over this, I'm no longer a Christian for these reasons. I'm just upset and I had a bad day and Pastor PJ preached something that offended me. This is a thoughtful, considered position that I am no longer doing this. I'm leaving the faith in a public way. Barman is another one that I think about as well. Yeah. He had some good stuff back in when he was a Christian. In fact, there's still books that are circulating that have his name on them, that are really good Christian books. Yeah. He's a great scholar. But now that his scholarship has gone in a very different direction, you have every reason to say I can't even I shouldn't pray for you. Mm-hmm. It makes me even sad to say that. But I think that's what John has in mind. At least that's my tentative position. And even then, I still have a bit of trepidation 'cause I might pray for them. Yeah. 'cause I don't know where they are. I don't know where their heart is. When we even say back when they were a Christian, evidence would say they weren't at that point. Professing faith, yeah, for sure. But Right. But were they ever truly saved, truly a Christian, they went out of from us. 'cause they were never, they were never on us. The first John two 90. Right? Right. Yeah. Yeah. Josh Harris is another guy that comes to mind. His, yeah. Dug down deep. His readable, systematic theology was fantastic. I used to take students through that and it's just one of those situations that we're like I don't know that I can. Yeah. Let's pray and then we'll be done with this episode. God, I pray that you'd keep our church from that. I pray that you'd keep our people preserved and keep them in the faith even as we've been reading in one Peter. That idea that you are guarding us by faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. I pray that you'd preserve everyone. In our church who professes faith in Christ that none would fall away, that none would go out from us a little bit. That we would all finish the race even as we read about from Paul. We thank you so much for your word. We thank you for as hard as 1 John is to read. We thank you for the directness and the clarity and the call towards. Fighting sin and pursuing light even as he opens the letter there. I pray that we would all do that as a church. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Keep reading your Bibles. Tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. See you then folks. Bye.

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Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said