Untitled Sermon (3)

What is this?

How do we know that this is an actual $2 bill?

So there is a way to be sure it’s real

Being Resolved to live in a world of lies

Raised Ink

Red and Blue Fibers

Inspect the Printing—real bills are printed with metal stencils with meticulisly straight lines

Just because you think it’s not real doesnt make it not real right?

But none the less…those three tests are what give us confidence they help us have faith that the bill we are holding is actually valuable and real.

How do we fight for solid faith...

3 Tests

Test #1: Love for the World

The first way that we can test the genuineness of our faith is by determining if we love the world.

1 John 2:15–17 ESV

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

To put this another way, do we live

So what does John mean when he says “Do not love the World or the things of this world?”

He says, “The desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life”

So there is an obvious question we have to answer here…Does this mean that we should totally hate the things of the world?

Like should we boycott companies when they disagree when they make decisions that are at odds with the things of God?

I dont think so…after all, it was Jesus who said, “For God so love the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shouldnt perish, but have eternal life.”

God loves the world…we are called to love others and serve all people regardless of their religious affiliation.

So to not love the world or the things of the world does not mean that we should hate the world or boycott the world.

The calling for Christians is to live in the world but not of the world.

There should be a distinct difference between the way your life looks and the way the life of someone looks that does not claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

That is what John is saying.

He is essentially saying this, the world loves the things that God isnt pleased with…as a person who claims to follow Jesus…does your life tell the same story as your confession?

If someone looked at the way you live, would they know that you follow Jesus?

Here’s the truth though…there are many Christians who really wrestle with sin? Right?

Like I think about the Apostle Paul’s confession in

Romans 7:15–25 ESV

15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Romans 7 ESV

1 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. 4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. 7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Romans 7:13–25 ESV

13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Romans 7:15-2

romans 7:9-

It is possible to wrestle with sin...

So we are talking here about people who truly wrestle with worldliness…we are talking about LOVE for the world and the things of the world..

Do you love your sin? Real qustion?

Test #2: Do We Believe in Jesus?

If we want to be resolved to love God in a deceptive culture, we need to revive a sense of urgency in our lives.

AntiChrist or AntiChrists?

Who is the Anti Christ?

“You have heard that the Antichrist is coming…even now many antichrists have come...”

What you heard about the Antichrist…it’s already happening, the antichrist stories you heard are happening right in front of you…they are people who deny Jesus…they are literally “anti” Christ… against Jesus....

1 John 2:22 ESV

22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.

1 John

So how do we know if we have genuine faith?

1 John 2:23 ESV

23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

What do you truly believe about Jesus? Have you decided to follow Him as your lord and as your savior?

Test #3: Do We Perceiver?

If we want to be resolved to love God in a deceptive culture, we need to learn how to OFTEN recommit ourselves to pursuing Holiness.

Listen to me, holiness is not optional guys.

Listen to what John says,

1 John 3:7–10 ESV

7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

John says that the proof is in the pudding.

We can tell if we are saved by looking at the fruit of our lives. If we live lives that are full of sin, we arent following Jesus.

He literally says this, “the one who commits sin is from the devil.”

At the end of the day, there’s only one way to know if this 2 dollar bill is real...

The stamp

Have you been stamped by God? Are you His…real assurance in salvation is found in the cross of Christ...