Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching from 1 John chapter
5. Now, I concluded this whole book
of 1 John in the last message, but I want to look at the last
few verses of 1 John chapter 5 concerning this subject, the
whole world, the whole world. And I'm gonna begin in verse
18 and go over some of the points that I brought out in the last
message. But I wanna talk about this word, world, in the Bible. Because many people don't understand
when the Bible speaks of the world, W-O-R-L-D, what it really
means. Most people just automatically
conclude that it's talking about every person in the world, or
every person that has ever been born, is living today, or ever
will be born. And what I want to show you is
that that's not the case in any use of the word world in the
Bible. For example, in our passage of
scripture here, we're gonna look at we see that the word world
is used only to describe a certain group of people, but not all
people without exception. And what you need to understand
in reading the Bible is when you see the word world or the
whole world, the context determines who the Lord is speaking of in
those passages. So let's look at 1 John 5, verse
18. He begins here, he says, we know
that whosoever is born of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten
of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. Now, there's several things here
you need to understand in this one verse in the context of the
book of 1 John and in the context of the whole Bible. First of
all, who is he talking about here when he says, whosoever
is born of God sinneth not? Well, he's talking about all
those sinners who have been saved by the grace of God and they
have been born again by the Spirit. Whosoever is born of God, that's
the new birth. That's what Christ spoke of in
John chapter 3 when he was speaking to Nicodemus. And he said, you
must be born again, born from above, born of the Spirit, born
of the Word, begotten by the Word of God. The new birth is
the application of the grace and power and goodness of God
into the life of one of his chosen people. chosen before the foundation
of the world in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, those who have
been adopted into His family, those who have been saved by
His grace, redeemed by the blood of Christ. They are the adopted
children of God, and when they're born again by the Spirit, they're
brought into the family of God spiritually. Over in the book
of Galatians chapter 4, listen to these verses here beginning
at verse 4. It says, but when the fullness of the time was
come, God sent forth His Son, now that's the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, and
it said He's made of a woman. That's His incarnation. That's
the creation of His sinless humanity in the womb of the Virgin Mary
by the Holy Spirit. And it says made under the law,
That means all of the conditions of the salvation of His people
were placed upon Him. He went under the law to do for
them what they could not do for themselves. You see, we cannot
be saved by the law. The law condemns us. We cannot
be saved by our works. That's what that means. So Christ,
having been made our surety before the foundation of the sure, and
when I say ours, I'm talking about believers now. I'm not
talking about all without exception. Christ was not made the surety
of all people without exception. If he was, you'd be all people
without exception would be saved. A surety is one who takes the
debt of another and pays the debt. And if the debt is paid,
you cannot perish because that's salvation. So Christ is the surety
of all the people whom God gave to him before the foundation
of the world. Their names were written on the Lamb's book of
life, Revelation 13 tells us. And he was made under the law
as their surety. He came into the world and united
himself with sinless humanity, the word made flesh dwelling
among us, the God man. And he substituted himself under
the law to keep the law and die on the cross to redeem them from
their sins. And that's what he says here
in Galatians 4, 5. He's the Son of God, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons. Now, the adoption was
set forth by God before the foundation of the world. That's what Ephesians
chapter one tells us. But there had to be a spirit,
there had to be a legal salvation which took place in Christ as
He died for our sins, died for the sins of His people, and then
they have to be brought spiritually into the family of God. Look
at verse six. And because you are sons, now
notice it doesn't say in order to become sons or to become children,
This would include women also. This is the generic form of sons,
children of God. And because you are sons, God
hath sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. And that Abba, Father denotes
that special relationship that God's children have with him.
Not everybody without exception now. but only God's children. And that's what he's talking
about over here in 1 John 5, 18. Whosoever is born of God,
they're the children of God. And how do you know they're born
of children? How do you know you're born again? Well, you're
born again under the preaching of the true gospel. That's the
main thing, that's what you gotta look for. Am I hearing, you know,
you're sitting in a religious organization, you're sitting
in a pew somewhere, and you're hearing a preacher preach, and
you gotta say, am I really hearing what the word of God says in
the gospel? Now, you might say yes readily,
but you need to search, you need to think about this, you need
to listen critically, not trying to find something wrong, but
making sure that the preacher's telling you the truth and preaching
the gospel, the true gospel of God's free and sovereign grace.
conditioned on Christ, who fulfilled all those conditions to secure
the eternal salvation and life of all for whom He died, was
buried and arose again, establishing righteousness for them, His righteousness
imputed to them, charged to them, by which God justifies them,
and from which they have life from the dead, born of God. Now,
back in 1 John 5, 18, he says, he that is born of God sinneth
not. Now, what does that mean? John
had already said over in 1 John 1 that if we deny that we're
sinners, we make God a liar. Listen, if you're living on this
earth, and I assume you are if you're listening to this program,
you're either a sinner lost in your sins or you're a sinner
saved by grace. And you cannot say that you don't
sin in the sense of going through life, not achieving the perfection
of righteousness that can only be found in Christ. You don't
have that in you, and I don't have it in me. We're sinners.
So what does he mean, sinneth not? Well, he's talking about
a specific thing here. And he related it back all through
the book of 1 John. It's a particular sin, the sin
of apostasy. And that means that if you're
born of God, if you're truly born of God, you cannot apostatize. And what does that mean? That
means fall away completely from Christ. Somebody said, well,
you believe once saved, always saved. Well, I put it this way.
If you're truly saved, you will always be saved. If you're not
truly saved, you can lose it. You never had it to begin with.
Now, John dealt with that back in 1 John 2. You can read it
in 1 John 2, 18 and 19. There were people there who claimed
to believe Christ, follow Him, gave evidence to people that
they were saved, but they turned around and turned their back
on Christ. They totally left the faith and
the fellowship of believers. They turned their back and they
called Christ accursed. They never were saved. But if
you're born of God, you cannot do that. And there's reasons
you can't. Number one is because God won't
let you. He keeps his people. And number
two, they persevere because of the power of the spirit within.
And that's what he's talking about. We know that whosoever
is born of God sinneth not. But he that is begotten of God
keepeth himself. Now, what do you mean keep myself?
Well, that means we persevere in the faith. We keep ourselves
looking to Christ. resting in Christ. But now we
don't keep ourselves by our own power, or our own goodness, or
even our own determination, even though we do, by the grace of
God, determined to stay with Christ. But it's only by the
power and the goodness and the grace of God, He preserves us. He will not let us go. Christ
said it in John 10, His sheep hear His voice and they will
not leave Him. He says, they cannot perish. They're in His Father's hand.
And no one can pluck them out of His Father's hand. And He
says, now those who are born of God, who sinneth not, who
cannot apostatize from the faith, but keep themselves, he that
is begotten of God keepeth himself, persevere in the faith by the
grace of God, that wicked one toucheth him not. Satan is the
wicked one. And when it says doesn't touch
him, what he means is that Satan cannot completely divorce that
person from Christ. Now Satan can attack him, Satan
can't even deal with him as he dealt with Job. God let him do
that. But Satan cannot totally separate
that born again child of God from Christ. He can't do that. And thank God he cannot. And
so he says in verse 19, now listen. Listen to this, this gets to
our subject the whole word. And we know that we are of God. Now there's one group of people
who are of God. These are the chosen of God.
The Bible calls them the elect of God. Elect, chosen before
the foundation of the world in Christ. These are the justified
people. What do you mean justified? That
means they are just before God. They're made right with God. Their sins are forgiven on a
just ground, and that just ground is the blood of Jesus Christ.
They are declared righteous in Christ on a just ground, and
that just ground is Christ's righteousness imputed to them,
charged to them. It's not their works, it's His
works. They are the redeemed ones. They've been redeemed by the
blood of the cross. Let the redeemed of the world
say so. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus, redeemed how I love to proclaim it, redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb. They are the born again people. That's how you know their election,
their redemption, their justification. They believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that believing was not of
their own determination. That believing was the gift of
God to them, from Christ. By grace are you saved, through
faith, not of works. That not of yourselves, not of
works, lest any man should boast. And that's those who are of God. And then he defines another group
of people. And he says, the whole world
lieth in wickedness, or in the wicked one. Now, the whole world
there is not everybody without exception. You can see that,
I'm sure. If you can read the sentence,
you read English. We are of God. Who's he talking
about? Believers, sinners saved by grace, who have been brought
by God to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they cannot leave
Him. But there are those who are of the wicked one. That's the devil. And there he's
referring to the world of unbelievers. You understand that? Not everybody
without exception, but the world of unbelievers. And then he says
in verse 20, he says, and we know that the Son of God has
come and has given us an understanding. Now, who's he talking about there?
He's talking about the world of believers there. That group
who have been born again by God, who sin not, who cannot leave
Christ, they've been given an understanding. That we may know
Him that is true, He says, and we are in Him that is true, even
in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. That group in the world who are
of God, who are not touched by the wicked one, who are not of
the wicked one, they have an understanding that was given
them by God. And what do they understand?
Well, they understand that God is a holy God who must punish
all sinners with eternal death to whom sin is imputed. And that's
why they understand that the only reason they're saved is
the grace of God in not imputing their trespasses unto them. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works.
They understand that God is holy and just. They understand God's
merciful and loving and gracious. but not at the expense of His
justice, His righteousness, His truth. God must be both a just
God and a Savior, a righteous judge, as well as a loving Father. And the only ground, they understand
that the only ground upon which God can save and justify sinners
like us is the blood of Jesus Christ, the imputed righteousness
of Christ. They understand that they are
sinful people. That's what we are. that even
at our best, that God cannot save us by our works because
our works aren't good enough. The Bible teaches us that in
order for God to be just and justify sinners, there must be
a perfect righteousness with no flaw. And they understand,
we understand if we've been taught of God through the gospel by
the Spirit, that we fall short For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. We fall short of the perfection
of righteousness that God requires, but that can only be found in
Christ. We understand that if God were
to judge us at any time based upon our works, our best works,
we would be doomed forever. Because our best works do not
equal that perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ.
Now this is the group of people he's talking about. They understand
that Christ is the only hope of salvation. That it's by His
glorious person as God manifests in the flesh. They understand
that it's by His glorious work on the cross to save them from
their sins. That all of salvation was conditioned
on Him alone. And that He fulfilled those conditions
when He said it's finished. And he was buried, he gave up
the ghost, he died, he was buried, he arose again the third day,
and he ascended unto the Father, he's now seated at the right
hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession for his
people on the basis of the righteousness that he established. And they
understand not only are they saved by grace, but they are
kept by grace. Now the whole world that lieth
in the wicked one is different. That's the world of unbelievers.
This word world, let me give you some other scripture. Look
over in 1 John 2, we dealt with this in verse 15 earlier, where
Christ is speaking through John. He says, love not the world.
Neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is
in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. But he that
doeth the will of God abideth forever. Now you understand the
word world there doesn't speak of everybody without exception.
He's talking about the wicked world, the sin-cursed world. and everyone who's a part of
it. And believers are not to love the world, they're to love
Christ. They're to love God and His truth. Over in the book of
John, the gospel of John, chapter 15, here's what Christ told His
disciples before He went to the cross. He says in verse 18, He
says, if the world hates you, You know that it hated me before
it hated you. Now, obviously he's not talking
about everybody without exception. He's talking about the world
that hates him, unbelievers. He says in verse 19, if you were
of the world, the world would love his own. But because you're
not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world,
therefore the world hateth you. You see that? That's the sin-cursed,
doomed world. We have to be saved from the
world. The Bible teaches basically that
the believer has three great enemies, the world, the flesh,
and the devil. And each of those enemies has
to be conquered and overcome. And how are they conquered and
overcome? Not by us, but by Christ. He conquered the world. He says,
be of good cheer. He said in John 16, I think it's
verse 33, he said, In the world you'll have trouble,
tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. As
far as Satan, he's overcome Satan by his death on the cross and
by his bringing his people into spiritual relationship with him.
And as far as the flesh is concerned, Paul dealt with that in Romans
chapter seven. He said, oh, wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? I thank God
through Jesus Christ, my Lord. Christ is the mighty conqueror
and we have victory, but only in him. And so he says, if you're
of the world, the world would love his own. But because you're
not of the world, I've chosen you out of the world. And therefore
the world hateth you. over here in John 16, verse 8. Yeah, verse 8 of John
16. He's talking about His death
on the cross, and out of His death is going to come the new
birth for His people. Even back in the Old Testament
when they were born of God, born by the Spirit, that life came
forth from Christ who would come in time in their future and bring
forth life out of his death. And he says, he's going to send
the Holy Spirit in verse eight of John 16. He says, when he
has come, he will reprove or convince or convict the world
of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Now the word world
there is not talking about everybody without exception. It's talking
about the world of God's elect And you know them because they're
going to be convicted of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
They're gonna be brought to faith in Christ and repentance of dead
works. And then over in John chapter
three, this is the verse that people hone in on and misuse. It's John 3, 16. It says here
in verse 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him
might be saved. That's not talking about everybody
without exception. What he's actually talking about
there is the ethnic world. And he's talking about God's
chosen people all over this world, Jew and Gentile. You see, you
have to understand that the unbelieving Jews who first gave credit to
Christianity but didn't really believe it. They wanted to limit
it to the Jewish world. But Christ told them, no, no,
no, God has a people all over this world out of every tribe,
kindred, tongue and nation. The gospel is the power of God
and the salvation to everyone that believe it, the Jew first
and the Gentile, Greek or Gentile also, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just
shall live by faith. It's not restricted to one race
or one, not just to men and to women, it's all over this world. God has a people. And how are
they identified? In John 3, 16, he says, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. Look down at verse 18 of John
3. He that believeth on him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already. because
he had not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Back up in verse 17, when he says that God did not send his
Son into the world to condemn the world, he didn't have to
send his Son into the world to condemn the world. He's already
condemned. That's what he says in verse
18. Because he had not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God. That's talking about the world of unbelievers. And
listen to verse 19. He says, and this is the condemnation
that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. That's the unbelieving
world. Verse 20, for everyone that doeth
evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his
deed should be reproved. You see, that's what he's talking
about. And back here in 1 John 5, he said the whole world lieth
in the wicked one. That's not everybody without
exception. Because we are of God. We who believe in Christ,
who have been brought to faith in Christ by God the Holy Spirit,
we are of God. But the whole world, the unbelieving
world, those who live and die in unbelief, they lieth in the
wicked one. They're connected to Satan. I
hope you'll join us next week for another message from God's
word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you. you